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Turn signals kill engine

C

clem

New member
Greetings, newcomer here. My daughter has a 97 GP with the 3.8. It's given great service but has almost 200,000 mi on it and is likely to be replaced soon. She was hoping to make it to summer, but has encountered a problem. At first, the engine would die when she turned the left signal on, then it became either signal. We don't have a dealer in this town so we took it to a reputable mechanic who we've used for years. He thought it was the switch assembly, so he tried that, but it didn't fix it. We were able to return the part, but now we're scratching our heads. If you take the flasher out of the loop, the problem goes away, but he thinks that may be oversimplifying the problem. We won't have a flasher to test until tomorrow so I thought I'd post here and see if this is something that has been heard of. I tried the search functions, but didn't have much luck.
any suggestions or ideas would be much appreciated...
thanks!
 


Well that will have to be a first for me. I dont think I have ever heard of activating the turn signal and it killing the motor. Im afraid while Im at work I wont be able to help much since I dont have access to my wiring diagrams to see what could be connected to cause that.

Maybe someone else will step in and have knowledge of such an event.
 
were you refering to the turnsignal switch or the ignition switch?

the ignition switch could be your problem also....
 
I'm going out on a limb here and saying:

The wiring for the multi function switch(MFS) shares the wiring of the ignition and if replacing the MFS didn't fix the problem, give replaing the ignition switch a try next.
 
wow...those were some fast replies. thanks....
I'll call the mechanic when he gets off lunch break and mention the ignition switch thing.
When my daughter brought it over to me, I drove it and when you'd put on the left turn signal, it would make a faint buzzing sound (sounded like from the dash) then the engine would begin to stutter, then die...unless you disengaged the switch. When you activated it to the right, no problem. Later she said the right side did it also, minus the buzzing noise.... but I never personally experienced that.
Weird...but if we could just squeeze another couple months out of her. It's been a great car.
 


I did not realize that the turn signal was run through the ignition switch. Im not sure what GM was thinking with that. At any rate, I just replaced my ignition switch a couple months ago and I bought one from the parts store for $100. The ignition switch, while not an extremely common issue, does seem to go bad more frequently in GP circles primarily because, it seems, all the accessory current that is run through it.

Its not a terriby hard thing to replace but its no piece of cake either. Also, there is a modification that can be done to the harness, primarily adding in a relay, that BackInBlack came up with that is supposed to prevent the issues that the extra current causes. Mainly arcing and carbon depositing on the ignition switch contacts.

When I replaced mine, I checked the switch contacts, there were definitely a couple of them that had a lot of carbon on the contacts.
 
It's not in the switch itself where they share the wires IIRC, it's in the wire harness under the dash. I'm not saying anything for certain, just offering an additional place to look.
 
Just stopped by the shop and the guy got his hands on a salvage column assy. He laid it in the floorboard and hooked up just the MFS part of it and the problems remained. He then hooked up the ignition switch side of it too....and the problem was GONE. Then he hooked the original column back up. Problem was back. He then said he could make the dash lights get brighter and dimmer by messing with the switch. We ordered a new ignition switch. He's gonna install it tomorrow.
MANY, MANY thanks to those who replied. The guy said he would have never guessed the ignition switch because there were no normal symptons of a bad switch. He's a pretty sharp guy and I'd say this experience is now filed securely away in his mind...awaiting the next occurence.
So...the car is gonna get fixed and it's gonna cost about $100 less than the first estimate.

THANKS AGAIN
 
Thats AWESOME. Truthfully, I had not heard of a vehicle that ran the current through the ignition switch that GM does. Frankly, it doesnt make a whole lot of sense and I too would have never guessed an ignition switch for what you were stating. Now throw in that some of the accessories were not working and/or issues with the fan speed (though that can be the resistor as well) then I might have jumped out that direction. I guess Im going to have to file your symptoms away in connection with the ignition switch.

Glad to hear you got it figured out and will have your ride back up and running in no time. If you know of other GP owners in your area, send them on over here, we love to make new friends.
 
Almost ALL vehicles have the turn signals run through IGN2 contacts. Otherwise you could leave them on indefinitely... Subaru even runs the headlamps through the ignition switch so you can't leave those on...
 


You know, that makes sense to me, but I just figured there was some other way they did it. Oh well, egg on my face. I'll have to tuck that little tid bit away for future reference.
 
I've seen countless strange electrical issues with the GP and all the "wierd" stuff ends up being the Ignition switch.
 
or at least the junction box (where all the wires go into the switch) mine came apart, and caused all kinds of issues, I have since repaired gm's crappy work and made it a permanent fix (the plastic flexes too much and pushes the wires out )
 
Yes...all this info made my life much easier this week. I was lookin at the prospect of loaning my pickup to my daughter to drive to work....scary. We got the car back yesterday and everything is fine. I emailed a link of this site to the mechanic. He was appreciative of the info too.
 


This is a classic case of neglecting to change the blinker fluid. You should be ashamed! I bet your muffler bearings have gone bad by now, too.... :th_jester: j/k good to hear u got it figured out. Isn't it great how one thing can go wrong on a car and cause other, seemingly unrelated problems to occur as well?
 
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