Tinker With My Blinker

Cars, like dogs and people, get back at you. Make no mistake about this. Shortly after the Jeep was kicked out of the garage in favor the BMW, it revolted by knocking out the turn signals. I no longer had the ability to blink my direction when turning.

But I understand, I would not want to be moved out of the garage either. Like missionaries at my front door, electrical repairs are something I usually run the other way from. But what the heck, it can't hurt to try and as long as I don't get too deep into it, I shouldn't do any unintended major damage.

Online Jeep Grand Cherokee forums offered little help, but more on that later. It was there, all how you searched for it. When ever I purchase a vehicle, I immediately buy the Chilton or Haynes manual on how to fix it. Unfortunately, the only manual was a Haynes, and it was of poor quality. It was unanimously panned on Amazon.com and I agree. Chilton manuals are much much better if you can find them.

After much consternation in the fuse box, I pulled apart the lower dash and found the flasher that needed to be replaced. I pulled it out and ran upstairs to plug the part number, 4686094, in Google and see what came up. Sure enough, it was a corporate part from Chrysler and it's failing all over the place. I found many minivan owners who also had no turn signals either. Being a Chrysler only part, I had to wait until this morning for the dealer to open and purchase one. It was cheaper online but I didn't feel like waiting. $55.15 in parts later, I have turn signals again.

I do my best to plug the American auto industry, but it's moments like this where I have my doubts. This vehicle was $38,000 new and at 64,000 miles the flasher goes out and turn signals fail. Turns signals as we know them now, were introduced in 1938 by Buick. This is hardly new technology and such a rudimentary part should not fail during the life of the car. I often forgive such newer systems such as stability control when they fail as they are still in their infancy compared to other features. With 69 years of development, the turn signal should be damn perfect and last forever.

Fixing this electrical problem was a bittersweet triumph. I know how to fix my blinker and I know why people turn their backs to American cars.