Real strange Ranger turn signal problem.

[WM]

Hi and thank God for your site. I hope I can get this problem solved here because it's beginning to cost me too much money already.
1997 Ranger XLT turn signals work normal until I turn on the parking/headlights. When the switch is turned on my left turn signals stay on solid. This also includes the dashboard indicator. Right signals work normally. If I activate the emergency flashers they don't flash but the dashboard backlights flash! This all happened suddenly. I bought a multifunction switch because of another problem with my wipers stopping in the middle of the windshield and other ranger friends said the wiper problem was the MF switch. The dealer service manager agreed with that assessment so I bought the switch. Well, that didn't solve the wiper problem or the TS problem. That's where I sit right now. I can't find a relay/fuse panel diagram that looks like mine so I can only guess. I tried swapping them to no avail. So I'm stuck. Any suggestions?

 

[Spyke]

I had the same problem with the turn signal indicator staying on, no flash. Ended up being something so simple, my turn signal bulb was not fully in its socket. Once I pressed it in it start functioning normally. Hope this helps.

-Spyke

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! I've moved your thread into the Ranger section.

 

[corkey]

sounds like a bulb is out, check them all ,

 

[WM]

Thanks for the quick replies. Both bulbs do work. They're on all the time.

 

[Tbars4]

...Have you hooked up any new wiring to your Ranger such as alarm, stereo etc.???..Also, have you looked into the wiring of your bulbs and trailer wires???

 

[rwenzing]

Check ground G103 - underhood, driver side, halfway back, bolted down to the inner fender apron. It is the ground for the dash illumination, dash turn indicators, left front turn signal and headlight. With time, the wire at G103 may become corroded or sometimes broken off of its eye connector.

 

[WM]

thanks again. No new installs. Will check that ground wire in the am.

 

[corkey]

k, check the bulbs, again,, that doesn't mean just click them on and look to see if they are on, , actually get eyes on the bulbs,and check all the filaments, and see that they are not burnt out, , it could be a burnt out filament that causes the signal not to work as the relay and the clicker under the dash do not see the right amount of resistance from all the bulbs to operate properly, ,

 

[WM]

thanks to RWENZIG for the solution. The ground connection looked ok but I removed it and cleaned it up. Now the flashers work normally in all modes.
Now my original problem. When the wipers are in delay mode they'll sweep once or twice and stop in the middle of the windshield. Of course, always in my line of sight. After a random amount of time they will continue the cycle and return to home position. Sometimes I can switch the wipers to no delay and they'll return to home after completing the cycle. This was the reason I bought the MF switch. Two of my coworkers/ ranger owners had the same problem and that was their solution. When I installed the new MF switch my problem wasn't cured.
Thanks for all your help.

 

[rwenzing]

There is a Park Switch inside the wiper motor assembly and its job is to supply power to the wiper motor any time the wiper is more than a couple of inches above the park position. If power is commanded off during a cycle, the Park Switch should return the wipers to the bottom of the windshield. Normally, in an older system without the intermittent feature, a wiper parking problem would almost always be due to a bad Park Switch.

With the intermittent wiper system, it's not nearly so simple. In the case of your Ranger, the Park Switch is still present but the wipers are also controlled by the GEM (black box multifunction control module) and a couple of relays. Your friendly Ford dealer has a diagnostic tool that can run a self test on the wiper system and return trouble codes, pointing the tech in the right direction for the repair.

Fixing this yourself may come down to a process of elimination. Here are a few "free" things to try:

• Recheck G103 to be sure it is 100% clean and secure.
• Do the same to ground G101 on the driver side of the radiator support near the battery.
• Remove and reinstall the 2 wiper-related relays in the underhood box to renew there connections.
• Swap those 2 relays (one at a time) with the same kind from the box to see if that helps.
• Inspect under the hood for any corroded, melted or rodent-chewed wires.

Desperation:

• Replace the wiper motor assembly

Last resort:

• Replace the GEM

Check my signature for a link to an online owners manual if needed for relay ID.

 

[samlaforest]

reply to original post

Hi, I'm not sure if your fix is the same as mine, but I own a '92 Explorer and after I took it out to the desert I noticed my turn signals were staying solid, both the bulbs and the dashboard indicators. I tried securing the bulbs again and it but it wasn't the problem. Turns out it was a loose fuse for the turn signals, because I removed it and the fuse was fine, but I just stuck it back in an voila, it worked perfectly. Maybe check your fuses?

 

[thereyago]

Hey, longtime lurker but I wanted to pipe in here and say that rwenzing's solution was the the fix for my left blinker not blinking. The hazards worked but the clue was that the headlight would dim with the blinker lever being flipped left. Anyway the ground for it was actually on the front of the engine compartment to the left of the radiator and the bolt was broken off. cleaned off the contacts and set a self tapping screw and bam everything is good. Thanks a lot. Great site here.