91 accord turn signals burnt out and idle problem

We may earn a small commission from affiliate links and paid advertisements. Terms

A

AaronrVegas

New Member
hey i recently got a 91 accord. had a bunch of work done to it before driving it across country. everything worked fine up until i hit the grand canyon. my turn signal started making a noise like when a bulb is out. i smelled something burning and then it just started clicking like a broken turn signal. also the hazard lights work fine. all the bulbs are good. but neither turn signal works. and it beeps incesantly. it is very annoying and any ideas/help would be appreciated.

also the car seems to idle a bit low. it acts as if it will stall out but it doesnt. its idling around 750 rpm or so. it acts as if its going to stall if its under 1k rpm. this is a new car (to me) and idk what to do about it.

any ideas or help appreciated. also i am new to this forum. i searched and searched on this topic and found nothing on the turn signal problem.

thanks,

aaron
 
not sure on this but ur turn signal switch maybe burnt up, all though i never heard of this happening but im sure its possible, it wouldnt b ur blinker cube if ur hazzards work,

as for the idle im guessing its a auto, right? have u cleaned ur IAC (not sure if this is relevant)? check for vacuum leaks?
 
I just had a lot of experience with the turn signal system on 94-97 Accords so I'll share what experience I have with them.

First of all, the switch is made such that you will never ever have that thing go bad on you. Someone may contest that, but from what I saw when I disassembled one, I cannot imagine anything failing. This leaves two other possibilities. Possibility one is that your hazard switch has gone bad. It is such an integral part of the turn signal system that if you unplug it, nothing works anymore. This is not the most likely case but a possibility.

The more plausible thing is that your flasher unit is bad, if it is similar to the newer Accords, it is in the fuse block at the driver's feet, it should be in the same block and have writing on it something to the effect of "4 light maximum" or something, I can't remember exactly, but you can tell it's designed as a relay of sorts for the flashers. However, if it were bad, I would think that not even the emergency flashers would work, however yours are. If the switch itself shorted out somehow (would surprise me, but possible I suppose) then that could be where the burnt smell was coming from, but if it was like an electrical burn smell, and it's possible it was coming from your feet, I would get a new flasher unit first and take it from there.

Good luck and keep us updated
 
first off i want to thank you both for responding.

8sec - actually it is a 5speed not an auto. it seemed to do this from the moment i first drove the car. when i put my left foot on the brake and put slight pressure on the gas\, (for instance at a stop light) and rev it up to 1k+ rpm it sounds and feels great. the car does not struggle at all. no i have not checked teh IAC. im not exactly sure what that is off the top of my head. i just picked up the haynes manual for this model so when i get back to vegas i will certainly read up on it.

f22 - do you think maybe they upgraded the turn signal switch from the 90-93 to 94-97 models? im not really sure whats going on it is just an idea. is the turn signal switch in the steering column? or is that under the hood so where could i find the switch for the hazards?

i checked all the fuses in both the kick panel and under the hood. the guy at quest auto sold me some 7.5A fuses. i originally thought it was probably a fuse but they were all good. (i checked all the fuses in both panels not just the 7.5A) i will definately check the 4 light max thing you spoke of. like i said i am not home i have no tools and my travel friend had to be back home by a specific date, so i was not about to take apart major components thousands of miles from home. it was defininately an electrical burning smell. not oil or friction burn or anything like that. my original guess was a fuse, but after reading some of the haynes manual and checking the fuse box i believe its an electrical component that burned up. i will be home tomorrow afternoon or so. when i get back i will check out everything.

also what are the chances that a supposedly brand new driver side power window motor was bad before it was even put in. what happened with this car is that my mom bought it for me and had some work done to it. ( i can post the full list later i dont have it on me right now). i flew out from vegas to SC to pick up the car and drive it back. basically it had about $1500 worth of work done to it and there are still plenty of problems. im thinking this mechanic was just either ripping us off or has no clue what hes doing.

when i figure out exactly what the problem is i will post how i fixed it here. this seems like a freaking sweet forum i am glad i came across you guys. thanks for your posts already and any in the future
 
Alright the "flasher unit" looks like a relay (it actually is, I believe). They should have them at any parts store. You would be looking for it to be at the driver's feet somewhere. I know that's vague, but as I said originally on the new accords it's actually in the fuse panel at the driver's feet at the top above the fuses (its a black square box about 5 times bigger than a fuse). It could possibly be behind that panel below the steering column in the vicinity of the main relay. It should have some sort of writing on it indicating.. well tell you what, I will do the legwork for you, my next post will show you exactly where it is....
 
You need to replace flasher unit relay, item #25 in this photo:

Picture9.png
 
yw bro, anytime i can help man... good luck hope its not much wrong...
 
i can tell you that auto zone does not have part number for a turn signal relay (they recognize the part though) for that model accord. did not have time to check the dealer yet either.

i think the idle problem is just when the fan motor is going. dont know why i didnt realise that up front.

when i get it fixed i will definitely post the solution(s).
 
ok so after another trip to autozone i finally got a turn signal flasher relay. not sure if that is the technical term for it or not but you all get the point. so i found it is in the driver side kick panel above the ICU.

now it says in the haynes manual the new and old relay should look identical. now i am a pretty big guy and its a little difficult for me to get under there. i have pretty big hands and there is very little room under there. so there are 3 relays there all looking similiar. the leftmost i dont think is it. it says its 12.8V on it and the one the autozone guy sold me says its 12V. the middle one looks a little too small(i think) so i think its the one on the left. problem is there is VERY little clearance between that and the clutch pedal housing (its the shit connected to the clutch pedal) i cant even tell if that is the right relay or not. i can barely get my head under there. and i cant tell if it needs to be pryed out or pulled out i cant see it. i cant even tell if its a 12V also.

i think you are right its close to 750 rpm if not that exactly. it idles fine when the blower motor is not on.

any ideas?
 
Well I don't know if the 94-97 uses the same location or not, but when I thought mine had gone out (it hadn't I was just an idiot and left my flasher button unplugged when I did a stereo ipod plug in that involved pulling the dash apart) I got a unit from auto zone, and it didn't fit. It literally would have been impossible to get it into the fuse panel. I forget whether it was the one on the left or the middle one, but IIRC it was the middle one. As for the fastener clip on it, yeah, those are a nitch- I used a Swiss Army Knife, flat blade screwdriver, a leatherman, all kinds of stuff and finally got it, but the real trick is using light and a fine instrument (whatever that may be) and working at it- I tried brute force and got the feeling I was going to break something and regret it before I was going to overpower that thing. I should have mentioned auto zone is a poor choice to get a replacement, unfortunately. The dealer I think gets something like $20 which is painful! But if that's the problem, small price to pay. I'd get it at Honda. Btw, here is an easy way to mentally keep track of which one it should be. It's the second row down, and the first one in from the left that is horizontal rather than vertical. Looks like there are only 6 relays actually on that fuse block.

As always, report back, I'd love to hear whether you have success with that or not.
 
awesome thanks for the help. you are totally right about the relay from autozone being shit. it is too big. i went to teh honda dealership today trying to buy hondabond for my valve replacement and the relay if they had it. also to pick the guys brain but he was not much help. he did show me the relay though and i think its the middle one. it was wrapped in bubble wrap so i couldnt tell exactly. the bad thing about that is they want like $43 and change. and if its the signal switch they want like $170 for that lol. i was like yeah ok bro junkyard it is then. im not even sure which one it is. i am pretty sure its one of the two though. well screw it even if i cant fix it i live in vegas people drive like assholes here anyway so who needs a turn signal.
 
Haha, so are you in Vegas to live for awhile or are you on vacation or something? If it's a vacation, this is the worst trip (automotively) ever :/ Anyway, they are trying to rape you hard at the dealer, my local dealer who really sticks it in deep still only sells the relay for like $24. You're right that salvage will do- it's a common car to be in the yard. And I am pretty sure it's the second one in on the fuse block judging by the picture. As I said before, I seriously, seriously doubt it's the switch having seen firsthand the near foolproof design of the internals of the switch. If I were you I'd buy one online and pay for express shipping and still come out ahead- but that's assuming you have an address you can ship to in Vegas.
 
lol that was funny about your local dealer. i do actually live in vegas. there are a few dealers in town that one just happened to be closest to my place. when i returned the relay to autozone today the guy said he was a honda enthusiast and said that honda raised their OEM parts all by 10%. idk if its true or not.

as for the fuse box goes i dont think i need that whole thing just the relay. that site on ebay is sweet though i may end up ordering something from there. i mean hell a starter was $25 + $15 shipping(kinda rip off) but whatever i think its over $100 at autozone for a starter.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top