Hi all,

I dropped my '71 Cutlass off to have an alarm system installed this morning.
Everything has been working properly since I got the car.

However they called me shortly after dropping the car off and informed me that when they drove it into the shop, he told me that when he pressed the brake pedal, that the turn signal indicators on the dash turned on.

They then tried the turn signal lever on the column and nothing happens. They looked at all four turn signals and they light up when u press the brake pedal.

Hmmm.....I have known these guys for over 25 years and trust them and their work completely, so I have no reason to doubt their word.

What do you think? a flasher gone bad suddenly?

Any help is greatly appreciated! and thank you in advance!

 

Have you replaced any turn signal or brake light bulbs lately? The turn signal/brake light bulbs should be a dual element 1157 bulb. If one of them gets replaced with a single element 1156 bulb it will feed voltage from the brake light switch into the turn signal circuit lighting up the dash indicators and turn signal bulbs when the brake pedal is pressed. A qualified alarm installer should know that!

Depending on the level of the security system being installed, the light flash feature should be connected to the flasher circuit and not the brake light circuit, and if you have a remote start feature installed it will have a connection to the brake light switch to kill the engine if the brake pedal is pushed without the ignition key being in the run position. These two connections cannot be tied together! If the problem started before they began the installation of the security system I would suspect the bulb scenario needs to be investigated. If they started wiring the security system and then found the problem, I would suspect a faulty installation. What is wrong is what is new! Start with what has been done most recently and work backwards until the problem is resolved.

 

"What is wrong is what is new! Start with what has been done most recently and work backwards until the problem is resolved."

Well put.
One of my favorites is (look first at the last thing "fixed"). Same concept.

 

Somebody bumped the button for the four way flashers. Make sure this button is all the way out.

Don't you wish all problems were this easy to fix?

 

Thank you so much guys! I'll check these things out today, and hopefully I'll get lucky!

 

Ok, an update: it appears that I have some gremlins in the Hazard button/switch. When we pushed the Hazard button in I get nothing, but when I pull the button out, all signals etc work as normal.

Thank you guys so much! You saved me countless hours of a witch hunt!

Now to sort out that Hazard switch.....

 

Likely the hazard flasher unit, which is separate from the one that operates the turn signals. The hazard flasher is the one plugged into the fuse panel. The turn signal flasher is on a harness pigtail under the dash next to the steering column.

 

You guys totally nailed it! Thank you all so much!