Pro tip: check the blinker relay before you swap the whole switch

Last month my right blinker stopped clicking and the dash arrow just stayed solid. I figured the stalk switch was toast, so I pulled the column cover and spent an afternoon with a multimeter chasing wires. Turned out it was a $9 relay behind the fuse box, two minutes to swap once I found it. My buddy laughed because he told me to check that first, but I was too stubborn. Anyone else burned a weekend on the hard fix before trying the easy one?

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brian3031d ago

My uncle had the same thing happen on his old F-150 about ten years back. He was ready to replace the whole turn signal switch on the steering column, had the part sitting in the garage. Then his neighbor, who used to work at a junkyard, told him to just tap the relay with a screwdriver handle first. It clicked back on and worked for another year after that. That story stuck with me. So now I always tell people to listen for the relay clicking before they pull anything apart. You can usually hear it if you put your ear near the fuse panel. Saves a lot of cussing and skinned knuckles.