I keep blowing turn signal lights?

I give up. I am going through about a couple of turn signals a month, and it is the same one over and over. My passenger front is eating turn bulbs like crack.

What is a good way to diagnose this? I figure it has to be electrical, and a type of surge. I have replaced the alternator, it was bad, and replaced it a couple months back.

Some times the bulb is blow and sometimes it is blow apart and milky white. When i mean blow apart like a big hole in the side or the whole top blown off.

I can't even begin to imagine where to start. I have a multi meter, so I can probe around. This is driving me nuts and costing me money, ugh...

thanks

kool-aide

check the socket.....probably corroded

thanks, i have been reading and that seems to be a common problem.

any one try using good old fashion water abd baking soda to clean?

your socket is wet........pull the socket out...dry it....make sure u put it back in correctly

i've heard of contact cleaner, but was thinking if i unhook the bat i could get in there with some baking soda and water and let the soda do its magic

what do you think? I would rather try my best to clean it, then get some dielectric grease junk and put a new bulb in. well that is the cheaper route since i always have bulbs these days and baking soda.

any thoughts?

well when i bought the car the lens was busted from an accident. maybe a good cleaning would help. I have long since replace that lens though, but never bothered to replace the socket.

Go to autozone.. they sell that socket for under 10 bucks..

Pick up a socket and take a look around the wiring to that light to ensure that its not grounding out due to bare wires
J

yep, sockets are cheap. Pull that first and check it out to make sure that indeed is what the problem is but with the busted lens and all that it seems plausible as myth busters would say.

baking soda and water? don't you guys remember cleaning bat terminals this way? wouldn't this save me a trip to the store? I hear the socket is under ten bucks, but i'm also lazy, lol. I'll buy it if I have to, but can't i clean it with my home remedies?

Ive got a busted lens and I replaced the socket and put a crapload of dielectric grease on it.. hadnt had a problem since.. Still waiting for state taxes to get in to replace it...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 0rion

yep, sockets are cheap. Pull that first and check it out to make sure that indeed is what the problem is but with the busted lens and all that it seems plausible as myth busters would say.

---

yeah, those guys are nuts, but know a hot chick when they see one. yeah there is junk and stuff in the socket. I tried cleaning it once before with sand paper and a tooth brush, pretty crappy and lame. I'm looking to go deeper into the medicine cabinet on this one before i buy a new socket. I wanna be that idiot every talks about. hey did you see what that knuckle head did, man, lol...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JoshieDoom

Ive got a busted lens and I replaced the socket and put a crapload of dielectric grease on it.. hadnt had a problem since.. Still waiting for state taxes to get in to replace it...

---

which side? I have a used drivers side i had to buy to get a used passenger side. I had to replace my busted passenger side, and now I have an extra drivers side. I know this is not a for sale thread, but thought you might have a need for it.

camaro's & t/a's use different lenses. :nono:

yes they do, did i miss a sig, DOH.

ok, so that pic of a big mammoth of a bird wasn't obvious, DOH.

it's cool. btw like your color. they are rare so hang onto it!!!
i had a mbm ta & a mbm z28. :sillyme:

thanks, yes, the closest i have found to this color are the cobalt looking blue corvettes. I have seen a 93-97 camaro on auto trader in the same color. i can definitely say in my tri-county area i have only seen like two. i only wish it was a 6 speed.

they only made em in 1999. my ta was a m6 the z was an a4.

really? i didn't know. i guess some pics are just hard to tell the real color. funny i went to autotrader and just found a 96 in bright blue. your right, not a match.

http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.js...ce=&cardist=23

wow that is a big link, hope it works.

my dream is to get back a 1st gen. i had a 67 bird but had to part with it. finding real parts drove me nuts. every one was selling parts as firebird, but nuttin was a fit, ugh... always had to cut and mod something to get parts on the car.

well, hang onto that one, and get a 1st gen to go with it. :yup:

too bad pres bush wasn't handing out bigger checks. i just saw a gold on gold 67 firebird up for 17k, formula 400 4 speed, damn...

no shit? :drool:

yep

http://www.cars.com/go/search/detail...eadExists=true

even has the tach on the hood

The reason your bulbs keep blowing out is because you have water leaking into the turn signal lens assembly for whatever reason. Trust me, I've gone through this problem. If the lens or housing isn't cracked, then the leak comes from where the lens is attached to the housing. Even the replacement lens/housing assemblies suck - before I put a new one in, I ran a bead of silicone into the joint between the lens and the housing. I also installed a new socket - they're cheap. The water hits the hot bulb and Voila! - instant bulb blowout, not to mention the corrosion problem. Replace the lens housing or fix the leak and you won't need all the dielectric grease to keep the water from corroding the socket.

Chemistry lesson of the day: Know why baking soda is used to clean battery terminals? Ever notice when you pour sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and water on your battery it may bubble or fizz? That's CO2 (carbon dioxide gas) being generated when the baking soda/water mixture reacts with the sulphuric acid that seeps out of the battery. Baking soda / water is a cheap way to neutralize the acid that's causing the battery terminal corrosion - not to mention the corrosion of any other metal part it touches. Just make sure the baking soda mixture DOESN'T get into an open battery!! The baking soda mixture is non-corrosive so it doesn't matter if you get it on anything else......
BUT, since we have GM products one problem leads to another....I have a T/A, and the battery sits on top of the radiator overflow tank. Well, the molded lip on top of the tank that holds down one side of the battery cracked - I noticed this when I was changing the battery and the new battery wouldn't stay in place. I took out the tank and saw that the aluminum overflow tube that actually goes into the tank and connects to the radiator overflow hose on the other end was perforated and corroded! This was due to the battery acid coming down and eating away the tube - even old antifreeze can corrode aluminum. GM should have made the tube from stainless steel but that's another shoulda, coulda - but chose not to. If you pour too much baking soda / water on the battery, it could get into the cooling system! The fix? Go to Home Depot and get 3 feet of flexible polypropylene tubing. Get the size that fits snugly into the grommet on top of the overflow tank and stays in the tubing channel molded into the top of the tank. After you clean the top of the tank thoroughly, cut the end of the plastic tubing going into the tank at a slight angle so it won't sit square with the bottom of the tank. Go to Part Two.

Stick the hose into the tank so it touches the bottom - then back it out 1/8". This way, the hose won't sit squarely on the bottom of the tank and impede return flow to the radiator. Run a bead of silicone into the top of the tank where the hose goes into the grommet. That way, if the hose isn't completely tight with the grommet, no crap can get into the tank. Tuck the tubing into the channel on top of the tank. The tubing may not want to stay in the channel because the tubing isn't extremely flexible, but as long as it goes down into the channel the battery will keep it in place. Make sure that the tubing sticks out about 3-4" from the side of the battery. Put the battery back, slip the radiator overflow hose over (into? I don't remember now) the end of the tubing and you're done. As long as you leave enough plastic tubing sticking out from the side of the battery you don't even need to clamp the tubing/hose connection. There's no pressure there and the connection will seal itself and be liquid-tight.

As far as fixing the battery hold down lip? I got some small metal brackets used for shelf supports, cut one side off so it looked like an "L", then JB Welded the lip and the brackets in place - I embedded the brackets into JB Weld, then smeared JB Weld over the brackets until they were completely covered. 2+ years with no problems... :burnout:

damn. ^^encyclopedia^^:lol: good info tho. thx

wow...yeah i tried a type of apoxy glue on the res tank. it didn't work. The battery just beat the hell out of it, oh well. I saw res tanks on ebay, then the found it cheaper on a site sponsor, GM parts direct or something like that.

well i used CRC eletric cleaner, doubt it was worth the money. It reminded me of the R12 freon days of cleaning circuit boards. I'll take another look at the housing. I know the original had the corner edge busted from an accident. the one i bought to replace it was used and it had a crack behind the bulb area, or general area. again i tried using an apoxy type glue to seal it. something tells me it may still open or there maybe another crack. I'll be sure to give another look for more water ways.

thanks.

where do u find these 10 dollar sockets?? ive been having this exact same issue and called around and the prices ive heard have been netween 60 and 80 dollars just for the socket!! WTF??