Hi,
For the last two weeks my '04 Expy has had problems with the blinkers. Sometimes the right blinker blinks really fast, while the left is just fine. Other times, neither blinker works. When I turn them on the blinker indicator lights on the dash just go on and stay on (no blink). Someone suggested checking the bulbs, but it's only got 18K on it and the bulbs seem to work fine. Any ideas??? Thanks

 

broken turn signal switch. so have it done under warranty.

 

Hi,

I just fixed a similar issue with my '00 Expy EB 5.4 4x2 which was still under a used car warranty I got with it but took care of it myself with the help of this great forum, eBay and a great seller there.

I decided against using the warranty mainly because of the deductable and the dealership I got it at has a service dept that is only open M-F 8a-5p and I couldn't take it to my nearest Ford dealer under that warranty as I had to be 50 or more miles away from where I bought it so.... In comes this awesome forum here and eBay.

The problem seemed to only happen when I tilted the wheel to the lowest 2 or 3 positions and worked fine in the upper 2. With it all the way down and in the 2nd from bottom position the signals, regular and emergency, wouldn't work. So after some research here I figured the multi-function turnsignal switch was either broken or the copper contacts had become corroded due to little contact grease. I took the switch off and first noticed that the bigger of the two big plastic electrical plugs that connect the switch to the wiring harness had broken hold down tabs but still went in fine and didn't seem to slide out very easy. I then figured, after finding that none of the local auto parts stores stocked that switch and all the local dealerships were closed as it was a Sunday, that I'd take the switch apart and check out the contacts and clean them with contact cleaner. That was alot of fun, especially when I had a small spring pop off of somewhere in the process! I found that the contacts had a whole lot of contact grease and didn't see any signs of corrosion, but I sprayed them down with contact cleaner after all. So I then proceeded to put the switch back together and after some swearing and thoughts of just leaving it that way in the garage until I got a new switch, I finally figured out where that mystery spring went and got the whole thing back together. I installed it back on my truck and it worked fine for a little bit then I noticed that the problem was back and no change at all :-( I then thought I'd look for the switch and hopped on eBay and found a ton of aftermarket, non-Motorcraft parts available for around $65 + shipping. I then looked through all the listings that had come up and found one, only one, for an actual Motorcraft part and brand new to boot. The auction still had a couple of days to go and there was no Buy It Now price so I decided to wait it out and then bid on it and was the only bidder thus getting it at the opening bid price of $29.99! That was $58. less than what the local Ford dealer was asking for the same thing! The seller then emailed me asking to call him as soon as I got his email as he thought that I may not need the switch but a whole different part altogether. I called him and explained that he worked at a Ford dealership and that he had seen the problem I was having quite a few times and said that the bigger of the two electrical plugs that connect to the switch sometimes break and that some of the wires come loose due to there not being enough slack in the wiring and tilting the wheel all the way down, which is the way I like to have it. He suggested selling me a replacement connector and suggested that I use an small ice pick/awl to pop each wire out of the old connector one by one and connect them into the new connector instead of splicing the wires with the ones in the replacement connector as that could cause wiring issues in the future. He offered the new Motorcraft connector and wires for $25 and I took it along with the new switch. I figured I get a little peace of mind replacing the switch too.

When I got the switch off and the broken connector I noticed right away that some of the wires were coming out of the connector very easy, so I pulled a couple out (one by one so as not to mix them up) and saw that the little plastic locking tabs that hold the tip of the wire with the contact on it in place were broken off, uh HUH!!! I then did what my seller told me to do and replaced the connector then replaced the switch and got it all back together. Even found what part of the interior molding the extra screw I found after taking things apart the first time a few weeks ago went. WOOHOO! I then reconnected the battery and tested things out, actually did that before I put all the plastic molding back on the steering wheel so I could see how extra slack I had given the wiring when I put things back together. It all looked and worked well after testing in all positions of the tilt wheel! The broken connector not only had the two hold down tabs broken but had about 1/2 of the tabs that hold the wires and their contacts in place broken. Still love my Ford but am not too crazy of their engineering on my truck's line. I had to deal with a blown spark plug about 9 months ago. The whole plug w/COP blew right off of the head! Found out it was a common issue and after threatening the dealership with terminating my used car sales contract as it was within 30 days of buying it from them, I got them to fix it at no charge to me. (It was an internal failure that wouldn't have been covered under the warranty I got from them so I was stoked.) They took their sweet time but I got a working truck back and haven't had any trouble since. Turns out Ford's engineers designed the heads on the 5.4 Tritons with only 4 levels of threads to hold each plug in! Frickin' aye! DOH!!!! Quite a bit of compression going on in there and they're aluminum heads! DEE DEE DEEEEEEE!!!! Come on you Ford rocket scientists you! They later acknowledged it was a problem although not worthy of a recall and fixed it by redesigning the heads with 8 levels of threads.

Alrighty then, sorry for the long winded post and hope to have offered up some good info. Take care all and keep on truckin'!