No cluster light or turn signals

[e30Andym42]

I was driving home from McDonald's and after a little bit down the road, I noticed my cluster light wasn't on.  It was night, so I had my headlights on, and they were still on, but my cluster light wasn't.

I continued on, but then I went to turn down my street, and my blinker started screwing up.  It buzzed at me, then kinda functioned, then on the cluster it said (I was turning left) that both of my turn signals were on, almost sequentially, but the left came on just before the right.  I am not sure if the turn signals did the same, but the indicators did that.  I went to turn on my left signal again, and nothing.  All of my gauges still function, but now my cluster light and turn signals do not.  The hazards don't work either, I tried this morning and it buzzed at me and didn't work.

I haven't been able to establish a connection between these things.  Maybe multiple fuses are blown or something, I am going to check that, but I don't have high hopes.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

[e30Andym42]

Replaced fuses 4 and 24, and it buzzed at me again, so I rechecked the fuses and they still looked okay, fuse 24 started showing some damage, but it wasn't broken, and I noticed fuse 23 was blown, so I swapped fuse 30 in due to lack of 7.5 amp fuses, and I turned my lights on, and the cluster light was back on, and I switched the turn signal on, and it buzzed and the cluster light went out.  Now it looks like fuse 24 is blown.

Just FYI (in case you don't remember/know):

Fuse 4 = Turn signal, clock light (though the clock light was not out, ironically)
Fuse 24 = Hazard warning flashers

[ak96ss]

Where is the buzzing coming from?  Sounds like you have a short in there somewhere.

[e30Andym42]

Pressing the hazards blew the fuse out, and pressing the turn signals only buzzed, coming from who knows where, sorry I can't help you out with that as I'm sure that noise means no good, so the less I make it happen, the less damage I can do.

Upon further examination, I noticed my passenger side turn signal, side marker, rear light, and license plate lights were out as well, so I switched the fuse out for those, and noticed that the fuse for that was blown, very slightly.  So all the lights came back on, including the gauge cluster light.  

So I'm assuming the flasher relay is bad.  My old relay is removed and I will be searching for a new one tomarrow.  I suppose it's hand signals on my way in to school tomarrow.  Yay 30 degree weather and rain/sleet!

[e30Andym42]

New flasher relay did not do the trick.  Now I am lost.

[JP 91iS]

Hmm sounds tricky.  Have you looked over the Electrical Troubleshooting Manual?  Page 8 has some good general advice on tackling electrical issues.

I'll see what I can find in there.

[Jimmy Lewis]

Tap on the cluster a bit, I shit you not.  My cluster was replaced at some point and whoever did the install must have fuxored some connectors, because my dash light go out on occasion and randomly come back on. A quick tap and my lights work again, also have the same issue with the coolant gauage, whack it.

[e30Andym42]

Tap on the cluster a bit, I shit you not.  My cluster was replaced at some point and whoever did the install must have fuxored some connectors, because my dash light go out on occasion and randomly come back on. A quick tap and my lights work again, also have the same issue with the coolant gauage, whack it.

haha, that's quite unfortunate.

The problem actually turned out to be some really bad wiring for a pointless u-haul connection in the trunk (guessing from when it was moved from Las Vegas to NY).  The driver's side read side marker stayed on when the fuse that it was connected to was removed, so I knew there was a problem in the back.  Now I know how to take the steering wheel off like I know how to open the door, and I have a new flasher relay sound.  Gotta love previous owner wiring.

Thanks again for the help.