This 1999 Mercury Villager came in with the complaint that the turns signals would not work. The owner had replaced the turn signal flasher twice and stated that now all it does is buzz when the turns signals are activated.
The first thing to check was the turn signal fuse and it was okay.
The next thing to check was power at the orange wire at the flasher harness. There was no power with the key on.
There was power when the hazard switch was turned on. The hazard lights do work properly.
Time to check the circuits at the hazard switch . To remove the switch there are two phillip’s headed screws above the instrument cluster that need to be removed.
Then the center vent bezel needs to be pulled away from the dash.
Then the instrument cluster bezel can be pulled loose from the dash. Note the overlapping plastic edges that prevent the instrument cluster bezel from being removed without first pulling the center vent bezel back.
There is a latch that has to be depressed in order to unplug the harness from the hazard switch. I am showing this with the switch already removed from the panel. It is located on the underside of the switch so there was no other way to get a good picture of it.
By installing a jumper wire between the orange and the pink/blue wire I was able to determine that the problem was indeed inside the switch. With the wires jumped, the flasher installed and the key on the turn signals worked when activated.
To remove the hazard switch there are two latches that have to be depressed so that the switch will slide out the front of the bezel.
There are four little latches that have to be depressed while the cover is being pulled slightly away from the switch body.
There are tabs on both sides that have to be cleared before the switch will separate.
The disassembled switch should look like this.
I used a screwdriver to gently scrape the oxidation film off of the contacts and the rollers.
Then followed it up by polishing the contact surfaces with an eraser. I did not use the eraser on the rollers as I did not want to get eraser bits down into the roller tracks. A little dab of dielectric grease before I put the switch back together.
A quick follow up test and reassembly and this one was done.
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