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trouble with directional (turn signal)

Hi,

I have a '91 Saab 900 and the directional is giving me some trouble. The right directional works fine. The left doesn't work at all.

The hazards also don't work properly. The hazards cause the dash arrow lights to light up solid. Likewise, all the lights on the outside of the car light solid. When the hazards are off and the directional is off the left arrow on the dash is lit solid and all of the lights on the left side of the car light solid. When I turn on the left turn signal nothing changes. When I turn on the right turn signal the left side remains illuminated and the right side behaves properly (flashing and clicking).

According to my Bentley manual the fact that the right signal works properly means that the flashing relay is good. They suggest a broken or improper light bulb will cause the system to behave funny. But I haven't changed any of the light bulbs in years (so they all should be correct) and they all seem to light up.

I'm sure the lit arrow on the dash is trying to tell me something but can't find any indication of what it means in the car's manual. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks, mark

Reply to
slycheese
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Hey Mark,

Check the bulbs on that side of the car....they may be the right ones, but if one of the filaments in the bulbs has broken and is touching part of the other, you'll get a short across that circuit that can cause the lights to stay on.

You'll likely find that you have a bulb that needs replacing.

Michael H

Reply to
Michael Halliwell

Thanks, I will check that out.

One new discovery today: If the headlights are off the directionals work fine on both sides. If the headlights are on the problem is as described below.

mark

Michael Halliwell wrote:

Reply to
slycheese

Sounds right....when you turn on the headlights, you energize the marker light portion of the turn signal...if you're just on running lights, it is just the blinker.

I think you'll likely find it is just the main front or rear turn signal bulb.

Michael H

Reply to
Michael Halliwell

Or a bad ground wire on one of the tail light clusters. Phil Brown

Reply to
philcycles

Fair enough on that, it is another possible cause...but I'm an optimist and I've seen more filaments be the cause of this kind of event, on all sorts of makes not just Saabs, rather than ground wires...

Besides, we can always hope for Mark that it will be as simple as changing a bulb.

Michael Halliwell

Reply to
Michael Halliwell

You were very much correct. It was the front turn signal bulb that was the problem. I couldn't see anything wrong with the filament so I tried re-seating it. That made the problem not as bad, but it still wasn't working right. So I replaced the bulb and now every thing is in order.

The filaments didn't look to be touching but the contacts on the bottom of the bulb were really pancaked out, so I think they could have been touching a little. Perhaps.

Thanks for the tips, it saved me a lot of time.

Mark

Michael Halliwell wrote:

Reply to
slycheese

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