Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting turn signals only half the time

I jsut got a 1998 Ford Contour and while driving it i notice that the turn signals only work half of the time. And when they do work they dont stay on very long and usually dont even stay on long enough for the turn. What might be causing this? I was thinking about taking it to this electrical shop near by but i dont want to do that unless thats what it sounds like it could be.

Sounds like the electronic flasher is going out

Or it could be the actual turn signal stalk/switch.

If it was me i would go to a junkyard, grab signal stalk form another contour/mystique and see if that solves the problem.

The flashers are pretty reliable. They are a solid state electronic type and seldom fail. Turn signal switches have given some trouble though. I had to replace mine for intermittant operation when the car had about 100,000 miles on it. I also had to replace the switch on my son's 95 Contour when it had about 50,000 miles on it. A few others have posted the same here in the past.

Have you replaced the bulbs? Do that first.

My switch (stalk) burned up, literally, one time. It's about $50 from a parts store.

my left signal regularly stops working...gives me the double time indication for light burnt out. I put in a new light and soon after get the same problem. Turns out that the lamps are OK, but is the contact in the lamp that is the problem. So...I cleaned out the old crappy lookin di-electric grease from the lamp socket and reapplied new grease...problem is gone!!

Well, I've joined the club of flakey turn-signal operation.

Out of the blue, my turn signals went from working perfectly, to erratic on-again, off-again operation. Sometimes they work fine, other times they barely flash at all. Up til now, I assumed it MIGHT be a temperature problem, but perhaps not so, if the flasher unit is solid state. What stands out is how this happened suddenly, rather than gradually.

BTW ... KermitTheFrog: How can replacing bulbs solve the problem ? I mean, if a bulb is burned out, it isn't going to work at all. Or do you mean, the flasher unit tries to work, but if the bulb is shot, the flasher unit operates erratically ?

I must admit, I haven't checked the actual operation of the rear bulbs in flashing (turn) mode ... I will after work tonight.

When my car was still new enough to be under warranty I had an intermittant turn signal problem. The only way I was able to confirm that it was the bulb was to swap the two rear bulbs. The problem switched to the other side as well. A new bulb resolved the problem. The one that was not replaced finally acted the same way, at about 150,000 miles. In both of these cases, the symptom was that the turn signals would flash at double speed and someone that was following me said that he did not see the rear turn signals operate.

I also had a problem with intermittant no turn signals at all, first mostly with the left side and then eventually with both sides. A new switch solved that problem.

OK, I checked my turn signals this AM (function of the actual bulbs) and they work fine. But the flasher unit is still operating intermittently.

From the previous posts, it sounds like the wrong bulbs can make the flasher unit spaz out. However, I have had the same bulbs in there for a longggg time, operating just fine until the past couple of weeks.

Do I assume it's a bad flasher unit? If so, where is it located ? What does it cost to replace these ?

Or, should I count the bulbs as a *possible* loss and simply replace them with brand new ones, before I worry any further about the flasher unit?

BTW, I have misplaced my Contour shop book, is there any such thing online ?

Thanks in advance,
- Dave in VA