My 1999 Forester's turn signals and hazard lights fail to work about 90% of the time. There are times when I engage one of the switches (R turn, L turn, or Hazard) and just leave it on, and after a varying period of time (~2 - 5 minutes) the appropriate lights will begin to flash.
The dealer wants to charge me >$500 to replace the "Combination Switch" on the steering column. I don't see how a fault there can have the effect I'm seeing. Any insights/ideas? Thanks
Possibly corroded grounds/connectors or a bad relay. The relay may be mentioned in your manual if you want to try changing it yourself.
Perhaps an indie. mech. would be more interested in thoruogh diagnosis if you doubt the dealer.
I have heard of subes with switch problems however.
Carl
I would first look at the flasher relay which would be fairly inexpensive. Nuts with $500-IF that is the problem.
Hey everybody, the problem is fixed! Thanks for everyone's help!
I fixed the problem by replacing the original flasher module with an FL34 from my local Murray's. It cost me $10 in parts and quite a lot of acrobatics to reach the place where they'd bolted the original to the bulkhead. There's a lot of stuff in the way, esp. with the alarm system in there.
Really make me wonder why the dealer's diagnoses was that the combo switch was bad. An out and out thief or just incompetent?
-- Vic Roberts Replace xxx with vdr in e-mail address.
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