'78 Honda Civic -- bad direction signals

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Please give a few more details: Does it light the bulbs, but not flash them, or just play dead? Do the four-way flashers work? Have you checked the relays in the under-hood fuse box (if there is one)? Can't the Honda dealer tell you where your relay is?

:-) In Canada, when somebody rolls down the window in and gives you the 'signal', it's called the Pierre Trudeau DIGITAL salute :-)

'Curly' 'Curly'

"'Curly Q. Links'" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@interbaun.com:

OP says he can feel it vibrating. To me sounds like the turn signal unit is bad. It won't stick in one place long enough to do anything useful. Heating element is probably too corroded to heat up properly.

I can't see something like this being particularly hard. It's easy to remove under-dash trim, although clips might be brittle when the car is almost 30 years old. And it's got to be roomier under the dash than in my car, so peeking under there with a light should be possible.

In addition to the other posts regarding a potentially bad flasher relay, you may also want to consider that the turn signal switch in the steering column needs to be cleaned up especially since you state that flicking the lever back and forth can sometimes get it to work. It's pretty easy to remove the steering wheel to gain access to the switch. You may need to lightly sand the electrical contacts in the switch with some 400 or 600 grit sandpaper. I had a similar problem on my '88 Civic with the headlight switch and cleaning it up fixed it and it's been working great for a couple of years now.

Eric

At times, nothing happens. At other times, signals work OK for a while but suddenly stop. At times, the light stops blinking but stays lighted. The four-way flashers work OK.