Z06ufgrad2002

Once in a while my dash lights go out briefly. But, it seems to be happening more often as the car gets older. Also, had a weird situation with the turn signal. The left turn signal did not work when applied but, after sitting at the light waiting for it to change; it just started working.

I checked to two main ground points at the front of the cars and there was no corrosion there at all.

Anyone know what would cause this?

thanks

SteveDoten

blinkers don't work? thump on the hazard switch as many times as it takes, see if the blinkers work after that

the haz switch often fails and req's replacement

the grounds may look fine, but inside the pins could be badly corroded

Z06ufgrad2002

The blinkers work most of the time. It was just one ocassion when it malfunctioned partially. After leaving it in the On position for about a minute it started working again on its own.

I took the grounds completely apart and found no corrosion there.

Oldvetter

Remove battery caables, clean them and tighten them to 11 ft-lbs. Too tight on a non-AGM battery and you will cause it to leak.

Bill Curlee

I "think" that the ground connector for the dash is in the drivers foot well. (dont have my manuals here at work)

Pull up the sill cover and the ground is where the sill and door post meet. It will be in a little triangle area.

It also sounds like you may have a bad/loose connection either inside the gauge cluster or on one of the connector for the cluster.

There are circuit cards inside the cluster and one of the plugs could be loose.

BC

soggysailor

I had a similar issue and it turned out that the turn signal was bad. There is a series of tests to isolate the problem. If you're electrically handy you can run these tests. Or a auto repair could do it. Funny thing is the turn signal is not all that expensive and I don't think its too hard to replace. It might be a part you want to throw at your problem and see if it fixes it.

Z06ufgrad2002

Thanks for the info
I'm going to try and find the ground connection Bill had mentioned first. If the problem persists I'll dig deeper into the turn signal circuit and try to isolate the problem further.

Z06ufgrad2002

This problem has manifested itself completely now. Dash is under constant rythmic flickering condition as well as all lights in the radio area.

Horn blows like the alarm is tripped after locking the car using the key FOB.



I did locate the ground mentioned and that area was quite WET. This is due to a faulty window weatherstrip retainer which has apparently been leaking for quite some time. Just something else that needs to be fixed.

Bill Curlee

Where did you find the moisture??? If it is in the passengers foot well, your in for a real treat! Sounds like you BCM (big silver box behind the toe board) is having issues. Most likely from being wet causing corossion on the circuit board!

If I were you I would rip out what ever carpet is wet, dry it out, fix the leak and remove the BCM and inspect the circuit board inside the box. Mine got wet and a white corrosion (powdery substance) formed on the back of the circuit board. I was able to remove mine with out issues but some people have seen their printed circuit board disolve!!

Check it out before it causes something else to fail because of a short.

BC

Z06ufgrad2002

The moisture was on the driver's side behind the plastic kick panel. I dried it out but, the leak can't be fixed until I get a new weatherstrip retainer and install it.

I looked at the BCM today and all is dry on that side of the car. Everything in the passenger foot well is pristine.

my02cents

Ran into a few things to add to this topic. My dash lights/radio lights were flickering but only when the headlights were on. One interesting thing I thought was I found the ground you mentioned above, it was if anything "barely" less than perfect but when I completely disconnected it, my dash lights and radio lights were still on. I thought when I loosened it or wiggled it I would see some flickering. I completely disconnected this ground by removing the bolt and saw no change on anything. LOL (I expected something to happen). Next I disconnected the 4 pin connector on the top of the alternator. There was some corrosion on 1 pin. I cleaned this up and no more flickering. Just some info to add.