RIGHT SIDE TURN SIGNALS--REALLY FAST

[AudiVWguy]

Hey everybody,
The 81 Caddy's right side turn signals are blinking faster than the left side. When I turn on the headlights on the speed doubles (@ 3 times per sec). I have removed and cleaned the bulbs and sockets. Ground locations I have found and cleaned are: behind each taillight assembly, engine bay on drivers strut tower, front right headlight area.
I'm sure there are many more (maybe under the dash?)
First, do you think its a ground issue? A possible related problem is that the temp gauge and the fuel gauge both move or increase about 25% intermittently for no apparent reason. The turn signal problem used to be intermittent but now is constant. I also changed the turn signal relay-- no help. The emergency flashers work perfectly.
Thanks for your help in advance!
-JB

I also want to thank our VW brothers in Canada for sharing their winter weather with everyone   [/i]

[the caveman]

if the conact was so corroded that you tried to clean it up, the surface conducting material is now probably gone. it's only the surface layer that conducts. check with a test light because you may be able to dig and scrape with the test light to check at which ever end isn't working [front or back]. the fact that your fuel guage moves as the circuit functions seems to mean that you have a larger ground issue.

[jtanguay]

i hate electrical gremlins... best way to avoid them is by getting the car lubed every once in a while... rust check over here sprays liberally all over the car (and it drips for a few days afterwards...  :lol:) i haven't had too many electrical problems other than the fan blowing...  :cry:

i usually associate fast blinkers with popped fuse, or a dead bulb... but those gremlins can sure be tricky  :lol:

[Vincent Waldon]

Seems to me you likely have two different things going on here:

1) a rapidly flashing blinker is your car's way of telling you "bulb not working"... perhaps I missed it in your post, but are all your flasher bulbs working ?  If not, start there.  If they are working, pull them one by one until something changes with the blink rate... gotta narrow this puppy down.

2) the fuel gauge and temp gauge doing strange things together is the classic sign of an issue with the gauge voltage regulator on the back of the cluster.  It's the one component they share... the problem is usually intermittent connections between the regulator, the pins it plugs into, or how the pins attach to the flexible circuitboard on the cluster.

99 times out of 100 it's a connection issue... the first fix to try is to re-solder the pins to the circuit board, and then solder the regulator to the pins.  The regulator is a semiconductor which doesn't like heat, so easy does it when soldering.

BTDT.... more times than I can remember.  The happiest my dad has ever been to see me was the day I fixed the gauges in his Eurovan... after many many trips to the shop and alot of "there's nothing we can do except replace the entire dash".

[burn_your_money]

As simple as it sounds one (or more) of your bulbs may not be compatible with the system. You could try swapping the bulbs from left to right and see what happens

[AudiVWguy]

All the socket connections test good. I will try switching the bulbs since its easy to check first. The voltage regulator for the gauges makes sense, thanks. Will let you know soon.
-JB

[rabbitman]

I have had that same exact problem only mine was the right side blinking extra fast. The bad part is that I can't remember how I fixed it :? ......thinking.... :cry: ......ah ha..uh, I think the right front bulb socket was the culprit. I recall that my brain was smoking and then I compared the left and right sockets with a test light. I believe it was a broken connection inside the plastic of the socket, I had to cut into it with a knife and solder it back together.

Ok, I just ran out and looked at it, there are three wires going to the socket, the black one had a bad connection I think it is the ground so that's easy to check. Anyways once I fixed that it has worked perfect ever since. Good luck

[AudiVWguy]

Good triumphs over evil once again!!
It was ground related in the right front. Same thing happened in the back ones. Even though the socket was clean, the ground strip that ran inside the socket and connected to the ground wire, lost contact. I drilled a hole in the socket and soldered a new wire, and ran it to ground, works perfectly.
Thanks everyone for your suggestions!
-JB

[rabbitman]

Sweet....man that's totally what mine did :shock: . Must be a design flaw.
Any luck with the temp and fuel gauges?

[AudiVWguy]

I'm gonna have to get to that later cause the radio I installed is a pain to remove.  :cry: [/i]