Yeah, those guys who posted before are right, it IS one of the left bulbs that is out. They blink fast because FORD installs solid state relays in the Contours, and they blink fast when resistance gets higher (opposite of mechanical flashers), because that was designed as a bulb out driver warning feature (so they say). I replaced my factory ford S.S. flasher with an aftermarket S.S. flasher (like what big trucks come with) and now mine blinks the same whether it has 1 bulb or 10 bulbs wired in the circuit. It is because I've been tinkering around with making LED taillights for my car, but LEDs hardly draw any current and it was making my blinkers go fast like you're talkin, so putting the aftermarket S.S. flasher in got rid of that stupid bulb out feature (which I think was just designed as a good ploy to confuse people into taking their cars to the F*** Dealer so they can get like 50 bucks or somethin to diagnose it)
Also by the way, the signal not clicking off at the end of a turn is an UNRELATED problem. That is a mechanical problem with the device that resets the lever when steering wheel is turned back. Mine does that too. I haven't had the chance to get in there and repair it, but it doesn't even matter now, because I am in the habit off turning it off manually and so it is just second nature to me now. The right one is even starting to behave like that too lately. I just try and remember that Model-T Fords didn't have that feature either
