97 4.0 Ranger 4x4 electrical

[Sally88]

When I touch the brake, the left front turnsignal light goes solid, even if the headlights are off. The left turn signal arrow also lights up on the dash. If the left turn signal is on, the blinking will stop when the brake pedal is pushed and resume normal when not pushed. When the turn signal is on to the right side, things are normal. Anyone know what is happening? I checked all fuses and they are ok. Also, the horn doesn't work, not sure if this is related, the horn speaker is near the left front turn signal assembly.

thanks in advance

[toddler62]

My guess is that somewhere probably under the dash two wires have rubbed together. Left turn signal and brake wire. hard to find, but a piece of electrical tape would fix the problem if you could locate them

[Sally88]

gosh, are there bare wires under there?

[toddler62]

not supposed to be bare wires but like I said my guess is somewhere the brake wire and front left turn signal wire are probably shorting out together could be anywhere. Electrical shorts are hard to find

[Sally88]

I looked under the hood, and found no wires obviously frayed. I checked the plug at the rear bumper for towing lights and found noting frayed. I pulled the plastic dash panel off under the steering wheel and the metal plate beneath it, haven't found anything yet. Is there a turn signal relay or something that could be bad?

[brivers]

I would focus on the left rear bulb socket. Check to see if the bulb is, the right kind of bulb, seated in the socket, blown and filament is touching other filament inside the bulb, or wire going into bulb socket is damaged. When you hit the brakes the brake lights are finding their ground back through the harness and grounding through the front bulb, thats why its lighting up. Hope this helps.

[Sally88]

I pulled the left rear light assembly. Even when all bulbs removed the front left amber stops blinking and remains on solid when the brake pedal is pushed and the left blinker is activated. Even with the blinker not activated left front amber and left arrow on dash stay solid while brake pedal is pushed. A plug is spliced in I assume for a trailer, and when I tried to check the fuse on it, the fuse top broke off and the leads stayed in the plug. It is very weather damaged. I will strip both ends and bypass the fuse to see if this is the problem.

[toddler62]

Your finding out why most mechanics charge by the hour for electrical problems instead of a flat rate. just keep pluging away at the problem. Another way of going about finding it would be get a helper to push brake pedal and watch light while you go around and lightly pull and shift wires around at the four corners lights hoping to to get the problem to stop. If you get lucky and you get the blinker light to go out you'll know the general area to find the problem. also i would consider unhooking the trailer light plug or making double sure all the splices are good Sometimes people dont do a good job when adding in the trailer plug