Turn signal mania

[hufhouse]

Last night, I noticed that the inside turn signal indicators lit up slightly every time I stepped on the brake.

A couple weeks ago, I noticed that the left turn signal would flash rapidly like it was burnt out, but then flash normally as soon as I let off the brake to make my turn.

Tonight, my wife and kids had the van out, and they said the turn signals have officially gone crazy, flashing all over the place.

I don't know...I think something might be wrong.

Any ideas?

[merc81]

Did I miss the year/milage? Very important info. If your van is '98 to '03 then here is what to do:
Remove the left turn signal on the rear of the van as if you were going to replace a bulb. Unplug the entire lamp assembly and look down into the socket were the wire plugs into the lamp assembly. Either the left, or the right side lamp assembly is corroded and burning up the plastic between the connector pins.

Not sure about other years, just never looked in them. I see no reason to think that any year using that connector and lamp assembly would be any better and therefore all of them are suspect.

This is hard to fix when its really bad. If you catch it early, you can just spray some cleaner in there, fill it with grease and put everything back. After it burns the plastic however, you are in trouble. One thing you can do is take the circuit board out of the plastic assembly. This will give you access to the plastic holder thats in the socket where the wire pigtail connects. Remove and discard that plastic insert as its carbonized. If you reconnect the wire harness very carefully, you don't need the plastic separator.

Extreme cases will need the wire harness connector removed as well and its best to just solder each wire into the circuit board in that case and do away with the connector all together.

One look is worth a 1000 attempts to understand what I just said, so pop your rear lamps off and peek at the connectors.

[hufhouse]

Thanks. Sorry, for some reason I thought my vehicles showed up over there under my avatar.

It's a 2000 Montana with about 125,000 miles on it.

I took a look tonight while waiting on everybody to get out of the house to go to church, and it appears that the problem is on the left side. When the turn signal flashes, it alternates between the turn signal and brake light. And, like I said, I notice that the indicator lights on the inside light up slightly when I step on the brake.

It's ironic that you mention this fix, because my first inclination was to tear everything apart and clean all the connections really good. I was leaning toward a bad ground.

If I find these parts to be in really bad shape, is it expensive to replace them?

[merc81]

It depends on how you choose to fix the problem. Ordering new GM internal assemblies for the lights is big $$, even is you order online from GM direct. And its not the assembly that goes bad, its the connector itself.

Often, you can find a guy on ebay selling the internal board for the lights for about 20, 30 bucks. I have never seen anyone selling the cable connector to replace the wire harness end though, and that's what should be replaced.

If it were me (and it was), I would take the connector apart on the lamp assembly and cut the connector off from the wire harness in the van, then solder the wires back to the correct locations on the circuit boards.

I cleaned out the connectors several times on my van and packed the whole area with axel grease to keep out the water but it still went bad again shortly.

Its like the body design just funnels water directly up to that connector when it rains.
John

[hufhouse]

You were dead right.

Tore everything apart, and at first glance I noticed that the "prong" coming from the circuit board that connects to the black wire was a little smaller than the rest. I also noticed the corresponding female connector on the pigtail seemed blackened and I could smell a burnt smell from all the parts.

I took apart the housing and cleaned the circuit board connectors with an emory board until they were shiny.

I took a paperclip and stuck it into the female connector on the pigtail and scratched at it and tried to bend it so it would make better contact with its corresponding part on the housing. I sprayed everything liberally with electronic contact cleaner and used the emory board and toothbrush to clean everything as well as I could.

Finally, I used a liberal amount of dielectric grease to try to waterproof things as much as possible.

The whole process took less than an hour and it appears to have been successful. This was just the left side.

We notice the craziness more at night, so we'll see what happens. Just for insurance, I might tear into the right side soon and do the same thing.

Merc81, thanks for your help on this.

[merc81]

Great!
I have been into mine several times now and as soon as it gets warmer, I'm going to cut the connector off and just solder the wires onto the circuit board directly for the driver's side.
I can't determine how the moisture gets into the connector, but I just can't keep them working on my vans. The direct solder on method has been the final word on this problem.
John

[SonofSparks]

Huf / Merc -

I have the exact same problem with my 2001 - the left turn signal started flashing real fast - with no lamps burned out - now when you push the brake both turn signal arrows light up slightly.

Same exact problem-

I am going to tear into it tonight - thanks for the tips!

[SonofSparks]

Well, that appears to be the problem. However the connector was too badly burned. When I cleaned it - it worked while the engine was off, but when it was running the additional voltage caused it to short out and go back to lighting up the turn signal arrows whent he brake pedal is pushed.

I guess I'll bite the bullet and order a pigtail and buy a new circuit board on ebay.

[ogauge4me]

Originally Posted by SonofSparks

Well, that appears to be the problem. However the connector was too badly burned. When I cleaned it - it worked while the engine was off, but when it was running the additional voltage caused it to short out and go back to lighting up the turn signal arrows whent he brake pedal is pushed.

I guess I'll bite the bullet and order a pigtail and buy a new circuit board on ebay.

I have the same problem with my 98. If you can go to a junk yard and pull the board off of a van in the yard you should do so. Worked for me!

I feel that the problem is a design flaw in that the only ground, black wire, is not large enough to handle the current flow so the tail lights try to pull the current from anywhere is can to satisfy the lamp. Remember the electrons flow from the ground to the battery which is why the ground is crucial.

[hufhouse]

Here it is, 13 months later, and I'm having the problem again.

So, I tried soldering everything together, and it made the problem worse.

Before I tear into it again, I have a question.

There are FIVE wires, but SIX connectors on the plug. Does anybody know if that sixth connector is jumpered to another of the wires inside the plug? If so, I'll need to do the same thing now that I've bypassed the plug.

Added later: I tore into my repair and everything I did seems correct. That sixth prong must do something. But, there are only five wires. The passenger side looks perfect, by the way.

[hufhouse]

Never mind...I figure it out. One of my solder joints was bad and shorting between two of the terminals. I fixed it and everything works now.

[ogauge4me]

The real problem is the ground for all of the bulbs in the module is insufficient to handle the current load and it gradually eats away at the ground pin of the assembly. When that happens current keeps looking for the least resistance to ground and it goes back through other bulbs, including the turn signal indicators causing an illumination.

My solution was to grab three tail light panels from the junk yard as spares. Works like a champ now.