90 Cornering Lights...Help

[ol' yeller]

On my 90 I had a devil of a time this weekend trying to fix a lamp that has been out on my car since I bought it. It is the right cornering lamp. I spent 2 hours Sunday disassembling the front end to get the whole assembly out to check the bulbs (big hands, small spaces, hidden fasteners). Anyway, after finding a burned out bulb I went to the parts house and got a replacement ($10 Ouch!) plugged it in and it wouldn't light. All the other lights in the assembly work but the halogen cornering lamp won't. I have no power to the harness plug for the assembly. I do have a ground. In my somewhat worthless New Product Manual I found a schematic that doesn't show separate fuses for each side. I should also mention that my dash turn indicators always start flashing with the outside lights and then begin to miss a turn or two or several. This happens for both sides although the left cornering lamp works fine. Also, this car was in a front end wreck before I bought it so it is possible there may be some harness damage somewhere. Any suggestions where to start? Thanks in advance.

[Guest EDBS0]

There was some debate recently as to whether the cornering lights should work all the time or only when the headlights are on. Did you try them with the headlights on??

[ol' yeller]

Yes, according to the manual, they only come on with either the headlights or parking lights. That is how the left one works. The right one just doesn't work at all, no power to harness.???

[Guest]

On my 90 the cornering lights only work when the head or parking lights are on.

[Guest EDBS0]

There are essentially only three elements to the circuit.<P><B>Power</B>coming in, <B>grounding</B>and the <B>bulb</B>to complete the circuit. <P>I have seen more than one new bulb be broken in transit or improperly manufactured? Test the bulb. These are halogen bulbs and you should never touch the glass with your fingers. Their oil is baddd!<P>The other thing to do is make certain that the bulb is fully turned in the socket and seated.<P>Did you check for power to the harness with the head lights turned on?<P>Good luck, you could have a severed wire also but in my opinion somewhat unlikely that only that one wire would be severed.

[ol' yeller]

I don't have power on the orange wire at the harness with the lights on. I used a test light so the condition of the bulb doesn't matter. I do have a ground. All the other lamps in that harness work as they are supposed to. I noticed in my manual schematic something called the the cornering/turn signal resistor on the core support. Could this be the problem? It appears that there is only one for both sides. If not a broken wire in the harness somewhere, could it be the switch or the flasher? I would think the flasher would effect all lights however. Finally is the turn signal switch and the cornering light switch one and the same as I suspect it is? It looks like it will be a bugger to replace the turn signal switch.

[Guest]

I like to tell my little story.<BR>Yes, when I bought my 1990 Convertible I had also non-working cornering lights. Eventhough the manual talks about lighting up with park or running lights, the wiring scematics show the function with ignition on in any case. However, my car worked shortly like that after I fixed my problem. There have been black bulbs, yes, but they were still intact. Indeed, the turning light and cornering light switch is one unit, but two different circuits. I think that the internal switches cannot take the high current in the long run and burn the contacts. As a result, high resistence within the switch unit. In order to avoid dismantling the entire steering mechanism I tried an electronical fix first.<BR>I built myself a little black box with a transistor/micro relay unit that allows to take the current from the switch unit and using the burnt contacts to "switch" my new circuit with low, low current only. In my case there was enough life left to fulfill this function. Finally, I "added" the options cornering lights on only with park lights and in addition with reverse lights like the Corvette does. Helps a lot parking during night time. Now you know all one of my reasons to buy a Reatta. I like the challenge<BR>working on its electrical system as an Electronic Technician. Compared to the German language, we aren't talking about problems here, they are challenges, ha ha.

[ductune]

The turn signal resistor has a center tap so it is really two resistors in one. One for each side. I believe it is used to lower the voltage to the turn signal bulbs so they can be used as running lights. The turn signal resistor should not effect the cornering lamps (clear ones), as I understand it.

[ol' yeller]

Ductune, I think you are right as I didn't see the resistor in the schematic drawing for the cornering lights. It appears that I must either have an open in the harness somewhere or a defective switch. Adefective switch is hard to believe as the left side works great. Maybe the previous owner lived somewhere he could only make right turns...I will have to have the column taken apart anyway as it has the dreaded tilt wheel sloppyness so maybe I'll take it in and have both problems fixed at once. I really don't want to disassemble the tilt column, too many spring loaded little pieces.

[Barney Eaton]

Greg.. the 1990 manual seems pretty straight forward. You should be able to probe the orange wire as it exits the turn/hazard switch (at the bottom of the column) to see if there is 12v there.

[ol' yeller]

Thanks Barney, that's what I needed to know. I am not an electronics specialist but I do understand how to open a circuit and isolate components. It sure helps to know where the componets are and what color wire I am tracing at those locations. I knew you folks would come through. I'll let you know what I find.

[Guest]

I have a 91. The cornering lights work all the time when the turn signal is activated whether the lights are on or off.<P>I had the same problem with my left signal. The solution was to replace the switch in the steering column, at the turn signal stalk, as the contacts were bad.