I'm battling a very persistent problem with turn signal lights on my '96 855. It started as an intermittent "no turn signal light" problem - after a few minutes of driving, the signal lights would stop working. The only way to get them working was to restart the car. The turn signal lights work for a while (sometimes for two minutes, sometime for twenty) but they stop eventually. Typically they stop while they are "clicking". I could not find any pattern in the failure (left or right; how long after starting the car...)

I jumped to conclusion that it was the common electrical portion of ignition switch and I got a new one. That did not fix the problem. I realized then that jiggling the key did not make it better/different and I saw no other typical switch failures (ABS,...) - only the turn signal lights were affected.

I noticed that when the signal lights fail, I cannot even use the emergency flasher lights. So I replaced the "blinker" relay. It is the hazard light switch integrated with the relay that makes the signal lights blink and click. I got one from a junk yard (same model year). It behaved pretty the same. I replaced all 4 bulbs (they were OK but I figured they may cause shorts). I may have a short in the system - during the two months of this I had to replace the fuse once. I replaced it with the same strength fuse (15 amp) and it did not short anymore.

I am not sure if there is any correlation but a few weeks before the problem started happening, I replaced dashboard bulbs (my check engine light bulb burned out and the car failed inspection due to the bulb failure). However, I did not touch the dashboard bulbs for turn signal (green arrows); just the check engine and service light bulbs.

I have no idea what to try next. I suspect that the "blinker" relay has some circuit in it that disables it (that's why I have to restart the engine to get the blinker/hazard light operating again). I could not find any obviosu problem with the cables going into the lights. This is my wife's car and she is not happy driving around town with no turn signal lights.

Anybody has suggestion/guess/woodoo dance to try?

Thank you,
Peter