Turn signal relay, wrong one?

[TheSt|G]

On my '85 my turn signals were intermittent and I could hear the relay buzzing behind the dash. Ordered a new one, replaced it, and the problem persists. Reached in during the buzzing and it would appear it is coming from the larger relay in front of the turn signal relay. I did a parts number search and it came up as the power windows relay, which I find odd since it only is buzzing when the turn signal stalk is tripped.

Either way, ordered a new one. What am I missing here? And yes, my windows work fine.

[Bill Douglas]

Originally Posted by TheSt|G

On my '85 my turn signals were intermittent

They are meant to be intermittent. You know, on off on off on...

Sorry, not really that funny once I come to write it down



The turn signal thingie. You were looking at the one with the four connectors on it?

[TheSt|G]

Originally Posted by Bill Douglas

They are meant to be intermittent. You know, on off on off on...

Sorry, not really that funny once I come to write it down



The turn signal thingie. You were looking at the one with the four connectors on it?

Going in from the oil/fuel gauge, I have one in the front with ~5(?) connectors, and then another smaller one behind it with 3. I don't remember the exact number on the larger one, but it is the one that was buzzing.




Here's a photo of the buzzer:

[ossiblue]

The relay in your pic, the one that buzzes, is the window relay as you said. Not having access to a wiring diagram for an 85, I can only speculate that there may be a poor ground somewhere in the turning indicator circuit--possibly at the fixtures themselves--that is allowing a low voltage feedback into the window relay that is causing the coil inside the relay to buzz.

You say your indicators work "intermittently". Is the buzz present only when they fail to work, or is it also present when the indicators work correctly?

Someone who has access to a diagram will probably shed light on this, but if your windows work properly, I would doubt the relay is at fault.

edit: After doing a little looking, I saw a pic of the location of the two relays and it appears they are very close together, possibly even sharing a common base that is designed to hold two relays. Does this sound correct to you? If so, there may be a feedback coming from the base itself if, say, the two relays share a common connection for their ground circuits (two separate sockets--one for each relay--but the sockets share a common grounding connection.) This could account for the window relay receiving the feedback from a poorly grounded turn signal fixture.

[86 911 Targa]

^^^^^
For our '86.

I have the factory CKT.

As needed, pm me.

Good luck,

Gerry

[TheSt|G]

Originally Posted by 86 911 Targa

^^^^^
For our '86.

I have the factory CKT.

As needed, pm me.

Good luck,

Gerry

Yup, it is definitely the power window relay that is buzzing from the turn signals. I actually believe that the indicators themselves work fine, just the arrow lights on the dash are intermittent. I have a new indicator relay and a new power window relay on the way, I'll see if that sorts them. I think it all might have been tied to when my un-relayed(it was on the to-do list) headlight stalk burnt out.

[TheSt|G]

Bump and revision.

On second inspection, it is the turn signal relay that is buzzing, it was just doing so with enough ferocity to make the other relay vibrate.

Either way, with new relays in place the problem persists. Thoughts?

[86 911 Targa]

Originally Posted by TheSt|G

Bump and revision.

On second inspection, it is the turn signal relay that is buzzing, it was just doing so with enough ferocity to make the other relay vibrate.

Either way, with new relays in place the problem persists. Thoughts?

Open ground.

[TheSt|G]

Quote de TheSt|G

Bump and revision.



On second inspection, it is the turn signal relay that is buzzing, it was just doing so with enough ferocity to make the other relay vibrate.



Either way, with new relays in place the problem persists. Thoughts?

Open ground.

Indeed.

Finally got the chance to get to that hidden ground post. Brushed the nut, hosed everything down with contact cleaner, reassembled, and she appears to be good to go!

I may hit it again in a couple months just to be double sure.

[targa80]

Just as a side note prior to the 85 model year the flasher relay was a 4 post. The extra terminal was C was connected to the turn signal indicator lights in the tach. Terminal C provided the internal circuit path through the flasher to terminal 31 which goes to ground. In my own case that internal circuit went wonky and causwd all kinds of havoc with my directional since terminal C started to provide 12volts instead of a path to ground at terminal 31. I have now modified my wiring to take advantage of the 3 terminal flasher used in the 85 design.