'88 electrical problem - RHS turn signals stay on

Hello Everyone,

Just recently, my 528e started having this quirky electrical issue. When I turn on the headlamp switch, the RHS front and rear turn signal lamps come on and don't flash (the RHS indicator lamp on the cluster also comes on steady). Then after a couple of seconds, they start flashing intermittently, but not a constant frequency.

When the headlamp switch is off, all works fine. This condition exists with both the engine off and engine on.

Obviously, I need to drive my car at night.... Please help!

Thanks.

Originally Posted by boomhuck

Hello Everyone,

Just recently, my 528e started having this quirky electrical issue. When I turn on the headlamp switch, the RHS front and rear turn signal lamps come on and don't flash (the RHS indicator lamp on the cluster also comes on steady). Then after a couple of seconds, they start flashing intermittently, but not a constant frequency.

When the headlamp switch is off, all works fine. This condition exists with both the engine off and engine on.

Obviously, I need to drive my car at night.... Please help!

Thanks.

Check to make sure there is a good connection to everything (clean up corroded terminals, etc). Change the bulbs from side to side. Sometimes a bad bulb can makes things act goofy. If that doesn't change things, it could be the flasher.

I am going to guess that you have a bad ground. I had a simialer problme and I ended up finding a bad ground and it took care of the problem.

Andy

I agree with both the bad ground and corrosion statements in earlier post. I've seen both situations in older cars i've owned and friends.

Thanks South... Where did you find the bad ground?

OK.... More information...

With headlamps off, all is good. Left signal works fine, and doesn't trigger any warning lights. Right turn trips the rear light and license plate light tell-tale lamp on the upper console (with check flashing on the cluster).

When I turn the headlamps on (not signaling at all), it triggers the rear light and license plate tell-tale lamp (with check flashing on the cluster) AND the right hand side turn green arrow on the cluster stays on. Also, the right rear turn signal is lit constant....

Everyone still feeling that it might be a grounding issue????

Ya, I had a very similiar problem. It was all of the little grounds up next to the battery. It turn out that the ground that has all of the little wires going to it has mostly rusted away so I was not getting a good ground. I ended up having to run a longer ground to the block. Once I did that I stopped having the turn signal problems when I had the head light problems.

Andy

Thanks everyone for your input. I found the problem... It was the right front turn signal wiring causing the problem. Corrosion.