1998 Grand Marguis Ls, No turn signals or brake lights Options

[CJLee89]

This is was my grandfathers car before he passed away, and everything was in working order a couple of days ago when we drove it to my house.

Like the title says the car has no brake lights nor turn signals. We had to pull into a gas station because of this and we only checked the fuses before driving it back home.

Any thoughts?

[CJLee89]

UPDATE: Went to move it out of the grass today because of the rain, and I went to start it up and it was dead. So I pulled my car over to jump it. When I got the cables hooked up, the hazards worked because we tried the hazards yesterday (didn't work either) and left them on accidently. I started it up and everything worked again.

This post has been edited by CJLee89: Nov 7 2008, 07:04 PM

[StrictPuppet]

It is likely the signal/hazard switch contacts are a bit dirty. Cycle the hazard switch a few times to clean the contacts. If it makes poor contact, the signal,hazards and brake lights may not work properly. However the third (center) brake light should still work if this is the case. If the center brake also doesn't work, it may be just a case of a burnt out bulb on that one.

[CJLee89]

Thats correct! The third one did work. I will try cycling the switch. I also noticed that everything else worked except the hazards last time i tried.

This post has been edited by CJLee89: Nov 7 2008, 08:54 PM

[bucko]

This is was my grandfathers car before he passed away, and everything was in working order a couple of days ago when we drove it to my house.

Like the title says the car has no brake lights nor turn signals. We had to pull into a gas station because of this and we only checked the fuses before driving it back home.

Any thoughts?

Sorry to hear that, you should treasure the car to remember your granddad if you was close to him. Glad you got it working!

[StrictPuppet]

The signal/hazard switch assembly is real easy to change on those if it comes down to it. Shouldnt take more than 20 minutes tops, and you dont even need to remove the steering wheel.

[CJLee89]

The signal/hazard switch assembly is real easy to change on those if it comes down to it. Shouldnt take more than 20 minutes tops, and you dont even need to remove the steering wheel.

Good to know. So the battery keeps dying on us and we have to jump it everytime. Could a bad ground to the battery cause this?

[StrictPuppet]

A bad ground wont drain your battery, but it will prevent it from charging fully. Although if it goes dead over night, you likely have a key-off power drain, or your battery is just no good.

You can run the car for a bit, to make sure the battery is fairly well charged, then shut it off. Try to restart it, if it starts you should be sufficiently charged for the next check. Shut the car off and disconnect the battery, leaving it overnight. Hook the battery back up the next day and it should start right up. If the battery is dead after it being disconnected overnight, clearly the battery itself is no good. If it isnt dead, then likely you have something consuming power with the key off. Often overlooked things are:
-glove box light that doesnt shut off, trunk light, underhood light...etc

If you have a way of measuring the current draw from your battery with the key off, you should find somewhere around 25-60mA to be normal accounting for clock, stereo memory, pcm memory, and keyless entry module standby etc.... anything over 100-125mA is a cause for concern. 300mA + will definitely kill a marginal battery overnight.

If your current draw is huge (over 3A), look for things like power lock switch stuck, power seat switches, shorted regulator in the alternator etc...