baldhead

on my 96 taurus my left front turn signal wont flash. it is on when I turn on my headlights but the front left wont flash. also the indicator on the instrument cluster blinks faster than usual. please help thanks

cwsttu

when the indicator flashes like that its telling you, you have a bulb out... so therefore replace the bulb in the front left and your good to go, think of it as a warning system when bulbs go out

shorod

I agree, this is a common symptom of a bulb element being open-circuit.

The light bulb in the left front turn signal position is a dual-element bulb. The low intensity element lights during parking and head light operation, but when the turn signal or hazard lights are on, the high intensity element also lights. So, you have light with the headlights on, but it doesn't flash when you use the signal.

The flasher uses a bi-metallic strip and two contacts. As current passes through the bi-metallic strip, the current heats the strip and the two metals expand at different rates. This causes the strip to curl and separate the contacts. After a short time, the metal strips cool and curl back to the rest position, allowing the contacts to touch again. When an element in a bulb opens, more current flows through the flasher which causes it to heat more rapidly which causes the flash rate to increase.

Turn the hazard/4-way flashers on and walk around the car. Notice how the intensity of many of the bulbs changes? Those are dual element bulbs.

-Rod

TomV

My experience with an open bulb has been that the flasher does not have enough current to flash and thus the flasher does not flash at all.
You can verify this by removing a bulb from the side that works and see what happens. The flasher will flash slower if it flashes at all.

In my opinion, if the flasher is flashing at a higher rate than normal that means there is more current flowing through the circuit than normal. This indicates a partial short in the wiring (or maybe within the bulb itself?) rather than an open bulb.

Several things you can do:

Swap out the bulb with another that you know works and see if the problem moves with the bulb or stays in the same socket.

If the problem follows the bulb (no light) then replace the bulb.

If the problem remains in the socket (flashing but light off) then remove the rear bulb on the bad side (left) and see if the flashing continues.
If the flashing remains after both bulbs are out then you have a short in the wiring to those bulbs.

If the flashing has stopped, place the rear bulb in the right front socket and check that it works properly. You should get a normal flash rate. If not, then this bulb may be bad (low filament resistance).

If bulbs are good and there is no short causing the flasher to flash, check the voltage at the front socket with a test lamp or voltmeter. Be careful to tape off any exposed metal except for the probe tips to prevent shorting out the socket and blowing a fuse. If there is no voltage between pin and socket shell at the front socket (one socket pin is for the parking light and the other is for the turn signal) then the wiring from the flasher to the socket is bad. If the parking light for this socket works then it can be assumed that the ground to the socket is good. That can be checked out by turing the parking lights on and checking for a voltage at the socket or using a good bulb and checking out that it lights up.

baldhead

thanks for your replys to my post i have yet to have a chance to mess with it again to see what it is but when i do i'lll post and let you know

way2old

If the left front will light up and not flash, look at both rear lights on the same side.

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Micaron

The Fist guy above is Absolutely Correct.
It hte Blinker Flashes Fast, then the Bulb is bad. Replace the bulb and your flasher will work correctly again.

baldhead

Ichecked all lights I have new sylvania turn signal bulbs. both of my side marker lights were out though. I replaced them. now if I leave the bulb in left side marker the indicator on dash stays on (no flashing and without the turn signal turned on).also the bulb doesnt light.

TomV

Does the marker bulb on the other side work OK? If so swap the two marker bulbs and see if the problem follows the bulb. I suspect a shorted bulb. Just removing the left marker should cause the dash indicator to turn off if this is the case.

My left front marker bulb is burned out. The flash rate stays the same for both right and left turn signals. Could be that the current draw is low for this bulb (the 194 is a 5 watt bulb) and it does not affect the flash rate. Could also be that the electronic flasher makes the flash rate insensitive to the load current as the older flasher circuits were. I will experiment tomorrow with my rear bulbs since the front ones are a pain to get to.

Update: I stand corrected. The flasher will go faster if the the main bulbs are burned out. The marker bulb itself was not enough of a current draw to cause this reaction. The new flashers have solved the problem of no flash at all if a bulb was burned out.

baldhead

yeah the front ones are no fun. im on my way to do the heater core 65 degrees is too cold for florida