BLINKER STALK DIY FIX FOR 3RD GEN (should work on many others as well)

Symptoms: When selecting the right turn signal from the stalk control (or could be left / mine have always been right blinker selection) The blinker sort of wigs out, fast blinks and such. You may hear your relay going nuts clicking. If you press hard on the stalk arm, wiggle it a bit - sometimes the blinker will work fine

Diagnosis: Contacts are stuck and or worn out / grooved but repairable. Grease may have turned nasty / could prevent good contact

How to - Wish I had more detailed photos but this is all I had time for.. Should be cake for any gear head:



I had to do this fix ages ago for my old 4runner so thought I would take some pics for everyone as my 02 started to do the same thing. The repair is simple, takes about 30 minutes tops. Also, the repair should last the life of the car as the issue generally pops up around 175-225K miles. There could already be a writeup on this - did not even look! But if not - hope this helps. This repair applies for most all toyotas in this year range and beyond or even earlier. Most pics below I took in reverse order as I decided to do a writeup AFTER I had already done the work So many will show new / clean grease. Your switch will likely be MUCH dirtier as mine was


Step 1: Take apart steering column clam-shell by removing the bottom phillips screw. Then rotate the wheel and remove two more phillips screws holding the clam into the column. Next, remove the two screws from the blinker stalk and unplug the unit (two screws not shown, already removed them. Will be self explanatory once you open the column up. Then just slide the control out!



Vacant hole where the control once sat:



Step 2:
Excuse the resistor in the pic, has nothing to do with this. Pry the clear plastic cover off the back of the housing


Step 3: Once the back side is exposed, remove the two phillips screws shown. Screws have purple marker on them


Step 4: Use a jewelers screwdriver to gently pry open the housing


Step 5: Lift off the white contact cover


Step 6: Once the cover is lifted, you will see a small contact trolly. Lift that out to expose the contacts


Step 7: Yours will not look this clean. This is after I wiped a considerable amount of black / burnt looking grease out of the contact area. Use q-tips and scrub good with alcohol Notice the center / top copper contact pad has a chunk out of one side. This is the worn out spot partially causing the issue


Step 8: Now pay attention to the contact trolly. Both of my contacts were stuck down / the spring under them was not having any effect. You can see the top contact has a groove through the silver plating into the copper. Also see the round copper spot on each side? The big one mates up with the chunk missing in the above photo


Step 9: Pry up the contacts with a jewelers screwdriver. Pry up gently on each side and they will pop out. Switch the upper and lower contact places and also flip them 180 degrees. This will give the upper contact a brand new surface as the lower will show virtually no use. Also, Both of my contacts were stuck and once pried up, the springs started working again. I removed each spring and stretched it a little bit, cleaned off all the old nasty grease and re-applied with silicone die-electric (spark plug grease / electrical contact grease)



Step 10: Now, lube up the contacts on the other side and slide the trolley back and forth / making sure the springs under the contact are acting like suspension for the trolly. Once you have slid it back and forth a few times, center it in the middle of the control and let the grease stick it / hold it


Step 11: Apply some silicone grease to the bright lights contacts. Just goo it up a little in between each contact. Feel free to clean and lube any other mating contact / plastic contact / moving part while you are in there. Be sure to clean out the old grease and simply use a quality silicone grease. Just an example, I put a little dab of grease on the end of the steering wheel return switch (the part which turns the blinker off automagically when you turn your wheel back straight)




That is it! Enjoy your as new / working blinker. Hopefully this will also help fix a lot of unknown blinker issues I read about as well :lookout:

Very nice write up buddy. Mine have never given me any trouble but if it does I will know the culprit. I had a similar problem on my Bronco 2 years ago. Ill throw you some rep.

Thanks for posting this! when my dad gave me my 4runner he told me that the mechanic, that he had been using for years, wanted to charge $800 to fix my turn signal. what a joke.

Wow... that would be a major bend-over if it was just the stalk... Like 10 minutes to install a brand new one.. but do not know what they cost new.

yeah its pretty much the reason why I do all the work on my truck now, plus its way cheaper.

heres what mine looked like, I noticed the middle terminal is worn in the same spot, I believe that is the issue here, I already put mine back together, and its better but it still does it sometimes, I think if i add solder on the contact and fill the spot it would be a temporary fix.

Good pics - shows how nasty the grease can get. And glad I am not the only one this has happened to before

Did you flip the contacts / bottom to top / stretch the spring a little and make sure the contacts are floating? Also, re-grease? Should fix it 100%

Cool fix! Mine does this. Eventually I was just going to buy a new stalk. Right now I just have to pull back a little when I use the right turn signal.

Let me know if it works for you!

Did you give it a shot?

Cool write up dude.

One side comment ....

The blinker sort of wigs out, fast blinks and such

Click to expand...

I believe sometimes these symptoms are also caused by installing LED bulbs in the turn signal lights.

It seems these are separate but similar issues.

That would be correct if one uses LED bulbs and no load resistor and a good point to bring up.

The described issues above are for people using stock bulbs only / getting a rapid, misfiring blinker in which you can manipulate by pulling or pressing on the stalk

'03 Blinkers Still Not Working

Jhelms,

Fantastic write-up. Completed all, re-installed and still have the "quick-blinker" problem for both sides. '03 4Runner Limited with DRL's. As of now, DRL's are off, front blinkers are not functional, and front blinkers are not working.

Any idea?

Thanks!

Bummer - have you checked all turn signal bulbs? Fuses? Turn signal relay?

Jeremy,

Thanks for the quick reply.

So, here are the symptoms...

Got the "fast blinker" on the left turn signal, discovered it was the left front turn signal. Replaced the bulb. It worked for a day then went back to the fast blinker. Swapped bulbs with the passenger side turn signal, both bulbs were good. Swapped back. Then, a couple of days later, got the fast blinker on the right side. At the end of the day, both front turn signal/DRL lights aren't working (they don't work with hazards either).

I came across your post and figured it might be the culprit, but didn't make a difference. Fuses are good. Rear blinkers are good.

I suppose at this point, I'll take the sockets off, clean them, mess with the contacts, re-install bulbs with dielectric grease and go from there.

If that doesn't work, I suppose it could only be the relay/flasher on the back of the fuse box. (Are those the same, or different? The terms seem to be used interchangeably sometimes.) If it were the relay/flasher, it would make sense though that none of the turn signal lights would work.

Any thoughts?

Thanks again!

- Jack

I think it's the sockets. I just pulled them off, and the contacts inside are rattling all over the place. One of 'em is missing a plastic 'retainer'. Guess we'll start there!

Thanks, Jeremy

Thanks for this post! Saved me from having to buy a new multiswitch. The 2002 I bought a month ago had this problem on the left turn signal. Mine was also chipped but on the other side of that same very contact.

I switched the contacts and rotated them 180 degrees. That caused a different issue that the turn signal would not pick up if I hit the stalk really hard...I took it apart and flipped them 180 degrees and so far no issues. So in my case, just switching them helped.

Great article, a friends 4r has this... will forward!!

Awesome fix!!! $800, college 4 da kidz... what BS... very sweet pics!!!!:humble:

Thanks for your efforts Jhelms!

My '02 Runner was having the same issue...left blinker worked fine but right was not working when fully engaged. It would work if you didn't push it all the way up but when fully engaged it would just make a rapid clicking sound. Both blinkers worked normally when hazards were on, so I figured it wasn't a wiring, fuse or LED replacement issue. (I replaced both dash blinker bulbs with LED's 2 years ago.)

Followed your write-up exactly this morning. The grease inside the unit was black and the contacts were worn in the same places yours were. I reinstalled the switch, tested all it's functions and have used the right blinker at least 75 times since. State inspection passed and I'm a happy camper.

Now to get the tie rod ends adjusted to straighten the steering wheel after the steering rack and sway bar bushings replacement I did last summer...

A big thanks to everyone who contributes to this site and Youtube on 3rd gens. Your efforts are a huge help, time and money saver!!

D Farms said:

Thanks for posting this! when my dad gave me my 4runner he told me that the mechanic, that he had been using for years, wanted to charge $800 to fix my turn signal. what a joke.

Click to expand...

$800...:rofl:

Wife once had a rapid left marker blinker, on a 2002 Volvo v70.
- she works for a auto training facility
- so I said, phone Dealership Parts for a socket pigtail...shouldn't be to expensive
- Parts guy said, the socket pigtail is NA...we will sell you a complete wiring harness for $1,000 plus tax plus Labor
- wife knew it was BS, and later had it fixed in 15 minutes

PS - All my blinkers stopped working once on my Gen3...turns out my Warning Hazard Flasher was dusty inside, from not using it. Cleaned the contact switch and all worked again.

BTW - good thread Jhelms [OP].

Maybe I missed it but where does the blinker fluid go?