[foleycrazy]

About 2 weeks ago my right turn signal did that fast blink thing like it would if the bulb was blown. Figured I'd change it when I got home. On the way home it started working again. Figured it was just a freak thing.

It did that off and on for a day or so. I wiggled the bulb and had no trouble out of it again until last night. Right after it started acting up again my battery light came on. I tinkered with the bulb after getting home and it worked again but the battery light stayed on. So I figured it was the battery or alternator even though they are both less then a yr old.

I hooked my battery up to a charger just to be sure I'd have enough juice to get to the parts store and possibly the ford house. I started the car up to leave and the battery light was off.

I went to oreillys this morning and they tested the battery and the alternator. Both good.

I told em about the freaky bulb issue and pulled the socket out. The socket looks like its burnt. The plastic does but not the contacts. Of course, my luck, they don't carry the sockets.

I guess what I'm asking is it possible that a bad socket would cause a short to back flow into the alternator causing my battery light to come on? Has anyone else had issues with their tail light sockets burning up?

 

[foleycrazy]

Anyone? I can tell you that I ran the diagnostics thing by holding in the trip button and turning on the key. The battery read 137.

 

[sailor]

Battery voltage is fine - shows "full charge" (13.63 is the actual full charge number).

Most likely two separate issues here, just happened at the same time...

Dirty/corroded connection at the bulb socket will eventually cause the "burning" you see now. One more reason to chase a problem when it first occurs....

In this case you MAY have been able to clean the contacts to fix the bulb issue BEFORE it burned.... (or maybe it was too far gone already..)

The most common issue we see here with intermittent battery (charging) light issues comes from a similar cause - Poor connections at the battery, or often a poor chassis ground where the negative cable from the battery connects to the car body (right next to the battery).

ALL need to be disassembled for proper cleaning to rule out that common issue as a problem.... Then reassemble & grease to retard future corrosion....

Dielectric grease is a great preventive measure for your bulb socket BTW, when you get around to replacing that just put a little in the socket contacts to reduce the liklihood of future issues there....

Any regular wheel bearing grease, or even vaseline is adequate for greasing up the battery terminals & chassis grounds once clean, you don't need the "good stuff" there.

Luck!

 

[foleycrazy]

I put in a new bulb and greased the socket yesterday. I will check the ground connect at the battery.