Signal lights

[mickhenny]

98 Venture.The left side signal lights flash rapidly exceept the front lamp it stays solid, I changed all the bulbs still didnt work could it be a fuse .Thank you Mick

[cjstew4]

Originally Posted by mickhenny

98 Venture.The left side signal lights flash rapidly exceept the front lamp it stays solid, I changed all the bulbs still didnt work could it be a fuse .Thank you Mick

Could be the start of the infamous shorting brake lights. Probably a short or ground issue on one or both rear circuit bds. (tailight assemblies). Make sure that your plug in harness connector hasn't shorted as well, as my 97's did. Both rear brake lights out, only third brake light on, as well as ABS and TCS idiot lights on. Cruise control not working either. You may have some or all of these symptoms, but it is probably the start of them. Pull the wire harness end off the plug to see if the middle contact (black wire of the harness) looks defective in anyway. If it looks a little burnt or its mating plug does, you have the famous short. If you buy new circuit bds (taillight assembly) only to solve your problem, goop weatherproof silicone caulk over the connection on both sides once you prove it works to prevent this shorting out from happening again. Design flaw by GM. Who would ever place any connection in the direct drain path of the rear hatch. The other option you have which costs about $5 is to label the harness wires that plug into the circuit board as to their location on the mating plug, cut the plug off the harness, attach connectors to each wire, cut down all 4 sides of the circuit bd plug about 3/8th to 1/2 in exposing the 5 pins. Be sure to clean off the shorted middle, thin prong/pin carefully. Attach the mating connector from the location markings you did earlier. Test the brakes, notice that your ABS/TCS dash lights are now out, and apply weatherproof silicone to the connections so that water, etc cannot collect at the harness or connections. The McGyver way, but my circuit has worked for over a year incident-free. email me separately at [email protected] to discuss more. Thought my ABS or Traction Control was on the fritz, but low and behold, only after looking this up on AF did I discover the problem and fix. If you go the new circuit bd route, the circuit cards I saw on Ebay recently were $27 US each which is a good deal. However, you still need to either replace the wire harness to them or perform the strip and add connector way I describe above. Thanks, Corey

[JimmyA64]

cjstew4 - I have a 99 venture and followed your advise on the taillight short. Thanks! One question though... any idea where I can find the connector? i have the board, but need to replace the burnt connector. thanks again. Jim

[phipps]

Is the short inside on the circuit board itself or is it shorting at the connector itself?

My lights have been acting up and I took apart my lights and found that the right one has the signs of the short.

[JimmyA64]

On mine - it looks like water got into the connector(s), and caused a short that messed up the circuit board. (Could have been the other way around too I guess.) I first bought the circuit board ($20) and replaced it. This did not fix it. Upon reviewing the connector (smelling) I noticed it burnt. I bought one from the dealer (could not find on line) and paid $60! Once the new conector was in place, with the new circuit board, and lots of sealant, the lights retured to "normal". Honestly, I did not try the old circuit board with the new connector. Although, I probably would not have for fear of blowing the $60 connector up!
Hope this helps you. If so, keep checking back... I am returning the favor that an earlier poster did for me...