My car is haunted

**Farace** · #1 (**permalink**) 10-19-2003, 10:02 PM

Weird thing happened today. I damaged the passenger side front bumper on my '71 Spider the other day, repaired it and reinstalled it this afternoon. (I had no idea that the bumpers on this car aren't really bumpers, but just big light fixtures!) Naturally, I made sure the parking and signal lights worked; I had to replace a bulb, and everything was fine.

Just for good measure, I checked the driver's side, too, even though I hadn't damaged that. Well, when I put on the turn signal for that side, the parking light and side marker light flashed. The signal light, which should have flashed, did nothing. Hmmm. Put on the parking lights, and the correct lights lit. Put on the turn signal and the parking lights, the parking lights flash, nothing from the signal light. Grrr.

I checked and made sure the right wires were going to the right places. They were fine. I couldn't reach the connector, so I removed the bumper. I disconnected the connector. Everything looked fine. The right wires matched up on both sides of the connector.

I put it all back together. Checked again. This time everything worked like it's supposed to. Signal light flashes on the turn signal, no flashing parking or side marker lights.

If I had a nickel for every time I've fixed something just by taking it apart and putting it back together without ever finding the cause of the problem, I could afford to have someone else figure these things out. This is probably the weirdest one yet, though, and I can't figure out what might have been the problem. It can only be the monacchicchi. (Learned about them in Italian class in high school; apparently they're the spirits of babies that died before baptism and therefore sent to purgatory; they're responsible for all sorts of mischief in Italian folklore. This seems to include my Alfa's lights.)

**Farace** · #2 (**permalink**) 10-20-2003, 09:20 AM

Oh, and more evidence that the car is haunted is that the horn will sometimes toot on its own. Now I know why the PO had it disconnected.

alfajim · #3 (**permalink**) 10-20-2003, 02:00 PM

Actually all Alfa's are haunted, if you don't want to repair something minor just wait it may cure itself.

Mr. C. · #4 (**permalink**) 10-20-2003, 06:22 PM

or could it be that taking the bumber off and putting it back renewed the ground connection ???

**Farace** · #5 (**permalink**) 10-20-2003, 07:47 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Mr. C.
or could it be that taking the bumber off and putting it back renewed the ground connection ???

**Farace** · #6 (**permalink**) 10-21-2003, 11:14 AM

Okay, this is getting annoying, with the spontaneous tooting. I was leaving the glass shop in New Haven this morning and unintentionally tooted several times. I'm going to have to find the problem. I'm guessing I might have an intermittent short from the horn wire somewhere down the steering column, or maybe a problem with the contacts inside the steering wheel. I think the monacchicchi should leave me alone and go back to writing Windows security software.

alfa63 · #7 (**permalink**) 10-21-2003, 01:29 PM

Lucky for you in having an older Spider. Trying to find the electrical gremlins in my '86 requires more parts to uninstall and contorting of my arms to reach those allusive connectors.

**fgc** · #8 (**permalink**) 10-21-2003, 11:58 PM

Hi,

About the flashing parking lights, I had the same things too and it turned out to be a bad ground. For some reason that I never figured out, if there is no ground, the other lights starts flashing! As part of my rewiring effort, I'm glad to say that its all sorted out now. So I would agree with Mr C that it might be a gounding issue.

As for the tooting horn, the wiring is like this, the horn relay's solenoid has 2 tabs that when the circuit is completed will pull the "floating" contact arm to toot the horn. The only way the horn will toot is if this floating contact arm (which carrys the big current) is closed. To actuate the solenoid, one side of the solenoid is connected to +12 and the other is connected to the horn switch via the long wire running through the steering column. The switch is connected to ground. So each time the horn is pressed, the circuit is completed and the solenoid is energized. So, yes a bad wire running the length of your steering column or a bad horn button switch might cause it to short and thus actuate the solenoid. if this does not check out, perhaps it might be the relay itself, that there might be a short within it.

Hope this will help in solving your tooting problem.

fgc