2000 OBW

 

I have a LH flasher relay that's getting flakey. When I signal left I can hear it clicking but it takes several clicks for the green turn indicator on the dash to start flashing. At this point I'm guessing it's bad contactors in the relay.

 

Where is this relay located?

and could there be something besides the flasher relay causing this problem?

I don't think you have a relay or flasher problem, otherwise the RH side wouldn't work too. Suggest you check the turn signal bulbs to see if they are working on the LH side of your car. Bet you have a bulb filament burned out.

Lot's of times it's a bad connection at the bulb if the flasher is going very fast and the bulb is dim.

A bad connection or even corrosion might make more sense come to think of it. Both tail light assemblys are prone to filling with water when it rains for a long time and it's common for me to take a shower when I open the rear hatch sometimes. I've had to replace the bulbs a few times because they were burnt out from water submerssion. Yes, thats right... SUBMURGED!

I had an intermittent quick-flash like a bulb was burned out and it just turned out to be dirty. Cleaned it up, put some dielectric grease in there, good as new. Don't know if your problem is being caused by the same thing, but my experience says "+1 to spending 15min and cleaning the connections because it might be that simple."

So this past weekend I spent a few hours working on rear tail light issues. My main objective was to try and fix this intermittent flasher issue. My second objective was to fix the leak in the rear hatch tail light assembly.

 

I have the hatch light assembly that likes to fill up with water occasionally after heavy rains. To the point that when I open the hatch I better be ready for a shower. At any rate, this is a common issue and I tried to remedy it by taking the assembly out and RTV along the top seam (cannot see any other place where water could be getting in); we'll see if this works, it hasn't rained since...

 

But also, I cleaned the bulbs and sockets from the all the lights in the rear, applied dielectric, the whole 9-yards.

This flakey flasher issues still exists. Now I'm wondering if it could be in the turn-signal stalk or, maybe back to the relay.

 

Anyone have any other suggestions? This is becoming annoying and I've cut a few people off because I signal, make a lane change, then realize my blinker wasn't flashing.

I'm in Bellingham also and have this same issue, but no blinker at all. I was hoping to find an answer in this thread to where the relay is located. I believe it would be one of the cylinder looking relays.

 

Did you try replacing the turn signal stalk or the relay? Or is the issue still exist?

 

Hopefully I'll get mine figured out..

So this past weekend I spent a few hours working on rear tail light issues. My main objective was to try and fix this intermittent flasher issue. My second objective was to fix the leak in the rear hatch tail light assembly.

 

I have the hatch light assembly that likes to fill up with water occasionally after heavy rains. To the point that when I open the hatch I better be ready for a shower. At any rate, this is a common issue and I tried to remedy it by taking the assembly out and RTV along the top seam (cannot see any other place where water could be getting in); we'll see if this works, it hasn't rained since...

 

But also, I cleaned the bulbs and sockets from the all the lights in the rear, applied dielectric, the whole 9-yards.

This flakey flasher issues still exists. Now I'm wondering if it could be in the turn-signal stalk or, maybe back to the relay.

 

Anyone have any other suggestions? This is becoming annoying and I've cut a few people off because I signal, make a lane change, then realize my blinker wasn't flashing.

If you haven't cleaned the light/socket in the front, you should do so before tackling signal stalk. Just do the side that gives you trouble.

Chage all bulbs first have been having problems with bulbs geting old on rears and water geting into sockets ect check / change rear bulbs the flasher is built into the combo switch on colum is non serviceabble but a few whacks on top of collum may help if thats whats up

I had a similar problem a few months back on my 2000 Legacy with 180K miles, after signaling a left hand turn there would be a clicking sound like a stuck solenoid or relay. It would not stop until I cycled the turn signal lever. Typical of these types of problems it started out intermittent, sometimes the symptoms would change, and progressively got worse.

 

It took a while to figure it out, turned out to be the turn signal/light switch assembly. BTW the flasher unit is below the dash next to and slightly behind the fuse panel.