Lee DeRaud

Ok, a gremlin has struck...

Initial symptom (over the last month or so) was that I would occasionally notice the right turn indicator IP light flickering. I only noticed it at night (headlights on), but it was subtle and intermittent enough to possibly be occurring during the day as well.

Last night I signaled for a right turn and, while sitting at the light, the indicator suddenly went to double speed, classic dead-bulb syndrome...and then it healed itself. By the time I got home, all turn signals were operating normally.

Same thing intermittently today (headlights off), but it finally failed hard and stayed failed long enough for me to get home and look at it. RF turn signal was very dim, rear blinking at double speed. Up to Pep Boys for a couple of bulbs. (Tried all the easy ways from other threads, but hands are just too big...easier to come up from the bottom like the FSM calls out.) Swap in new bulb...no joy. Ohmmeter says both old and new bulbs are ok on both filaments.

Situation now is, no RF turn signal or DRL with headlights off. With headlights on, have what looks like normal parking light/side marker on that corner (the other filament?), but again no turn signal.

Looking at the FSM schematics now, but thought I'd get a sanity check (you there, dadaroo?) before I start yanking relays. Anything I should be looking at besides relay 38 in the footwell? And do those things just pull out or is there a trick to removing them?

Lee DeRaud

Update: tried swapping footwell relays 38 and 40 (which appear to do perform the same function for right and left DRL/signal respectively). No change in symptoms.

One other thing: when I pulled out the socket to swap the bulb, there were splice joints about 4" up from the socket. Is that normal, or has a previous owner/mechanic been diddling with that already?

Lee DeRaud

Yeah, even though I can't reach it, I was able to get a look at the left-side socket from the top: looks like the right wire colors. The right-side one is three white wires between the splices and the socket. I suspect the socket has had a hack-job replacement at some point. Since the parking light filament works, the ground is ok, so now I'm down to one supply-side wire, hopefully at that splice. If it's further upstream, it'll be even worse of a pain to get to.
At least it's the right-front, the least critical of the four turn signals...

73Corvette

Dang Hacks!

Lee DeRaud

Thanks, got that. The brown and black wires are ok, the blue/white one is the issue. Short of going on a scavenger hunt for a new socket, I may just have to repair/perpetuate the hack...it depends on how the white "hack" wires attach to the socket and whether there's enough slack in the remainder of the factory harness at that point. (Keep in mind I'll be doing all this in situ, under the car, since the other end of that harness is somewhere beneath the fuse box.)

Lee DeRaud

Well, first step after I cut it loose will be a continuity check on the socket, and proceed from there. The socket didn't look bad when I was swapping the bulb out.

Lee DeRaud

Not to get too far ahead of myself, but does anyone have any insight on the routing of the harness from the turn-signal pod? The FSM shows the circuit going from the IP fuse box where the relay is, to a connector somewhere in the underhood fuse box, but then there's about 3-4 more feet to get to where I can actually see it.


Sure would be nice to have an intermediate point I could measure the voltage going down that blue/white wire.

dadaroo

Just saw your Thread. The connector you want is C100. It is an Black 8 cavity connector, only 7 are used.

It is at the RH skid bar just ahead of the horns.


If you have the FSM then you should see it in the circuit. Also in the Wiring section it will list where the Connectors and Splices are.

BADBIRDCAGE

Lee:

When I bought my car both parking lamp/drl sockets had been replaced with the three white wire turd sockets. If you are replacing a socket go to NAPA and get Echlin LS6515 replacement sockets. They are correct in wiring color and wiring gauge. The white wired turd ones are a smaller gauge wire.

As others have said they are not cheap but they are the best replacement part you will get.

If you need the "C100" connector NAPA can get that from the Belden wire catalogue, but depending on the store they might want you to buy the box of five that it is shipped in.

Rich

73Corvette

I would sure check with Marc@vettenuts for the connector... he surely has a bucket or two of them setting around. But, you could say I'm tight as bark on a tree... sometimes. This may be a case when new is better...

BADBIRDCAGE

You and I share the "economize" gene and I'm one of Marc's biggest fans and recommend him all the time. In this case I wouldn't want to deal with a used part.

73Corvette

Gotch ya... was thinking if Marc had a nice used OEM, it might be better quality than a new one from China... although the OEM one was probably from China too... But the NAPA ones may be better quality anyway... you've been there done that, and I haven't so I would take your word for it for sure!

Lee DeRaud

Cool, thanks: saw it in the schematic, but didn't know where the physical locations were documented.
Now I'll be able to check the upstream wiring before I cut anything.

froggy47

Here is a vid of replacing RF turn signal socket & bulb

Lee DeRaud

Ok, a quick update: wasn't planning on working on it until Monday, for a number of reasons. Went to the gym this morning, came out 1.5 hours later, and it's working, DRL and turn signal both. Guess I'll just wait and see if it fails again...

That's the good news. The bad news is, my intermittent P0492 is back. Seems to pop up every couple of months (November, February, and now April), usually during the kind of cool, damp weather we've had the last couple of days. I'm just hoping it either fails hard or stays away for another long spell, because I'll need a smog check for this year's registration in June. The Corvette gods giveth, and the Corvette gods taketh away.

Lee DeRaud

Failed again last week, decided I wasn't doing anything productive today, so spent some quality time with my multimeter.
Bit of a kabuki dance: opened it up, pulled out the socket, tested it…and the turn signal was working. Bloody hell. Jerked around on wires, couldn’t get it to fail, plugged the socket back in…and it failed. Huh? Pulled it back out…still failed.
Ok, so now I unplugged the harness back at that C100 connector and checked for voltage: good, thank god. Moved down the cable, checking everywhere I could, finally decided to go ahead and replace the splice on the one wire I knew wasn’t working (DRL/turn 12V). In the course of that exercise I managed to cut one of the other two wires, so went ahead and replaced all three splices. Plug everything back together…works. Put the socket back in the fender…fails. Bugger. And of course getting the socket out requires holding down a nearly inaccessible locking tab while you’re turning the assembly, probably spent more time cursing at that tab than doing useful work. So I get it back out, happen to jiggle the bulb, and it starts flashing. Seriously? Took the bulb out, scraped down the socket contacts and hit them with contact cleaner, bent the bulb contacts up to make firmer contact, reassembled the whole thing (again).
I’m going to go ahead and order up a new socket just on general principles…found what looks like the right one on the Autozone site for $40. But for now all is good.

Lee DeRaud

Thanks...that one is showing as $36, a bit cheaper than Autozone.


Although one odd thing I noticed was that the white-wire socket that is on there now actually has bigger wire than the OEM harness that feeds it. (Or maybe just the insulation is thicker, couldn't really tell about the actual wire.)

FLZapped

I had a similar problem. Cleaned the contacts with Caig contact cleaner and then "stretched" them a bit to make better contact with the bulb. Been fine since.

Lee DeRaud

That's where I'm at now, but I'm not going to tempt Murphy's Law:
if I buy a spare socket to stash away, it will never fail again.