Questions and Answers
Turn Signal Problem
Q. I hope you can help with this one. The car is a 1996 Mercury Grand Marquis 4.6L, automatic transmission, 29,000 miles, fuel injected, ABS, P/S, A/C, conventional steering (info you requested about the car). The problem is the left turn signal flashes about twice the rate of the right one. All the lights appear to be working. The owner's manual (that comes with the car) shows the flasher located on the fuse panel by the drivers left knee, but the socket is empty. What do you make of it?
Thank you
A. That's a funny thing with Fords, they put the socket for the flasher in the fuse box and then mount it under the dash. I stopped trying to figure things like this out years ago because I like to sleep at night. General Motors does the same thing. What I suspect is that a few years ago the four way flasher was put in the fuse box and the T/S flasher was under the dash. Now that both are incorporated into one flasher, and the wiring for the turn signals is under the dash, they simply stopped using the socket. The cost to redesign the fuse box without a socket and tooling the machinery to produce it takes a lot of money, so they just leave it the way it is. After all, what does it hurt? It just makes guys like you and I sit there and scratch our heads and wonder why.
The flasher is under the dash, above the steering column. I just leave the key on, turn on a turn signal and follow the sound.
