Passenger side turn signals in Vue

My friend has a 2006 Saturn Vue V6 Automatic 4WD. He's towed boats and
trailers before, but this weekend hauling a u-haul trailer everything
worked fine till when stopped to unload he turned on the emergency
flashers. (It was a U-Haul installed hitch he'd had for years)
Didn't think anything of it but later he noticed that the turn
signals didn't work, nor did the flashers.
Replaced both fuses and the driver's turn signal worked great... nice
and bright. The passenger side was really dim but was working. He then
tried the hazard lights and it blew out both fuses again.

Anybody run across this sort of thing before?
Thanks!

--- Posted via news://freenews.netfront.net/ - Complaints to ---

"KWW" > wrote in message
...
> My friend has a 2006 Saturn Vue V6 Automatic 4WD. He's towed boats and
> trailers before, but this weekend hauling a u-haul trailer everything
> worked fine till when stopped to unload he turned on the emergency
> flashers. (It was a U-Haul installed hitch he'd had for years)
> Didn't think anything of it but later he noticed that the turn signals
> didn't work, nor did the flashers.
> Replaced both fuses and the driver's turn signal worked great... nice
> and bright. The passenger side was really dim but was working. He then
> tried the hazard lights and it blew out both fuses again.
>
> Anybody run across this sort of thing before?
> Thanks!

Did the fuses still blow with the U-Haul disconnected?
Sounds like there was a short on the passenger side that caused a voltage
drop enough to dim the lamp but not enough to trip the fuse. With the 4-way
flasher on, higher load might cause the fuses to blow.
Which fuses blew and what current rating were they?

Did you get a check engine light? All dashboard indicators still working?
Reason I asked is when I got my '01 lw300 (used), there was a problem with
the rear turn signal. I might have caused a short circuit while trying to
fix it. Can't be sure if it was related but realized shortly afterwards that
the TRAC lamp did not come on at key-on. It was still under dealer warranty
(with about 5 days to go) and got them to change the BCM (body controller
module) which fixed the problem.

www.Aircooled.net - So you're a old school VW head also. My '69 beetle went
to a recycler about 20 years ago. I had the Henry Elfrink manual that I gave
to a friend's son when he got a classic dune buggy.

The fuses blew even after U-Haul disconnected.

Both the flasher and the run signal fuses blew and both were 15 Amp.

The fuses are OK if the turn signals are operated for either side
separately, though as noted the passenger side is very dim.

The Check engine light is not ON.

I am having him compare it with a relative's Vue to see what lights are
missing (probably hard to tell if one isn't there otherwise). A picture
he sent seemed to have a lot of them. Three horizontally on lower left,
3 diagonally on upper left, one in the speedometer, 6 in parallel
vertically in the tach (3 on each side), and the check engine on the
upper right. Could possibly be part of another one on the lower right
but it is cut off so hard to tell.
He told me he thought that they all appeared to be operational. When
he gets the comparison I will post any discrepancies.

Thanks for your help!

I no longer drive my '65 Beetle on a daily basis and have a '64 waiting
to be restored... 97k original miles on it. Slowly but surely it is
getting there.
KWW


On 6/18/2012 9:54 AM, Oppie wrote:
> "KWW" > wrote in message
> ...
>> My friend has a 2006 Saturn Vue V6 Automatic 4WD. He's towed boats and
>> trailers before, but this weekend hauling a u-haul trailer everything
>> worked fine till when stopped to unload he turned on the emergency
>> flashers. (It was a U-Haul installed hitch he'd had for years)
>> Didn't think anything of it but later he noticed that the turn signals
>> didn't work, nor did the flashers.
>> Replaced both fuses and the driver's turn signal worked great... nice
>> and bright. The passenger side was really dim but was working. He then
>> tried the hazard lights and it blew out both fuses again.
>>
>> Anybody run across this sort of thing before?
>> Thanks!
>
> Did the fuses still blow with the U-Haul disconnected?
> Sounds like there was a short on the passenger side that caused a
> voltage drop enough to dim the lamp but not enough to trip the fuse.
> With the 4-way flasher on, higher load might cause the fuses to blow.
> Which fuses blew and what current rating were they?
>
> Did you get a check engine light? All dashboard indicators still
> working? Reason I asked is when I got my '01 lw300 (used), there was a
> problem with the rear turn signal. I might have caused a short circuit
> while trying to fix it. Can't be sure if it was related but realized
> shortly afterwards that the TRAC lamp did not come on at key-on. It was
> still under dealer warranty (with about 5 days to go) and got them to
> change the BCM (body controller module) which fixed the problem.
>
> www.Aircooled.net - So you're a old school VW head also. My '69 beetle
> went to a recycler about 20 years ago. I had the Henry Elfrink manual
> that I gave to a friend's son when he got a classic dune buggy.


--- Posted via news://freenews.netfront.net/ - Complaints to ---

When was the trailer light harness installed?

Possible short from yanking on the harness.

Neighbor up the street is nearing the end of restoring and old bug. Not sure
what year but sent the body out for work while he finished putting a Subaru
4-banger into the chassis. He's also got a 65 VW bus that's next to restore.

Good call on the harness. I was finally able to get over to his house to
check it out myself while we were looking at the dash lights and saw
that the harness wire was resting on the muffler. Yep. One wire had
melted. We pulled it taut, cleaned it, put liquid electrical tape on
it, zip tied it up better, replaced the fuses yet again, and thankfully
it worked!
Thanks again.

My daily driver is now more like a weekend driver (given the summer
heat) and I am still in process of restoring a very nice '64. Taking my
time to get it right.
KWW

On 6/18/2012 10:10 PM, Oppie wrote:
> When was the trailer light harness installed?
>
> Possible short from yanking on the harness.
>
> Neighbor up the street is nearing the end of restoring and old bug. Not
> sure what year but sent the body out for work while he finished putting
> a Subaru 4-banger into the chassis. He's also got a 65 VW bus that's
> next to restore.


--- Posted via news://freenews.netfront.net/ - Complaints to ---

"KWW" > wrote in message
...
> Good call on the harness. I was finally able to get over to his house to
> check it out myself while we were looking at the dash lights and saw that
> the harness wire was resting on the muffler. Yep. One wire had melted.
> We pulled it taut, cleaned it, put liquid electrical tape on it, zip tied
> it up better, replaced the fuses yet again, and thankfully it worked!
> Thanks again.
>

You are welcome.
In my job as electrical engineer, troubleshooting and failure analysis is a
big part of my work...