94 Eldo multiple lights failed at once

[mancow]

recently i began having intermittant problems with my blinkers. they would all of a sudden not come on at all except for the left front corner marker light, and on the dash the indicator would either go solid or not light at all, but no blinking. after a short period of time they would return to normal.

then today, several lights went out at one time including my headlights (manual or sentinel), turn signals, hazards, brake lights, parking lights, instrument panel & shift indicator lights, licence plate lights. the only lights i had to drive home on were fog lights, reverse lights, and my left front corner marker light would still come on when i hit the blinker left. also my interior overhead lights worked. on the drive home the lights came back on briefly and then shut off and haven't turned on since.

i visually inspected all of the pertinent fuses and relays in the engine compartment, and the fuses in the trunk. nothing seemed out of the ordinary there. i've looked at wiring diagrams from Chilton's and can't seem to find any common source for the mentioned lights to fail all at once. any help would be appreciated..

[MAC]

mancow

I take it that you already checked to make sure your alternator is working. Below is some information I copied from the old discussion board about electrical problems similar to yours:

I just wanted to post some information for any poor guy who runs into goofy electrical issues as I did.

I had my left blinker go out on me one morning, but by the end of the day it was back on. Meanwhile my blinkers flashed really fast, which I now consider a clue as to my problem. A few days later my radio goes out. Next day radio is back for a few days then goes out again, few days later comes back for good. Then sometime after that my dashboard lights, shifter lights, and lights on the radio go out. These lights come back on for a few minutes a few days later after the car had sat out in the rain, but then go out again altogether.

I checked the battery itself, as well as the battery ground. I also checked all the lights in the back, since my wife had also noticed that one of the brake lights didn't work. I also checked fuses. I found a couple burned out bulbs...the small ones that light when you turn. All the other bulbs looked fine, though I couldn't pull the bigger brake light bulbs out of the sockets. I thought it was just me and since they weren't burned out I left them alone.

When I took the car to my shop they checked the rear bulbs and had one hell of a time pulling the bulbs out. When he got the brake light bulbs out, though they weren't burned out they had melted at the posts creating a short. My mechanic thinks someone replaced a bulb backwards. When he replaced the bulbs my dashboard, shifter, and radio lights returned. And the blinkers flashed at a slower rate. I'm thinking that the speedy blinkers were a signal that there was a problem with the lights. I just thought I should post this in case anybody is having unexplainable things happening that may be stemming from the same sort of thing. I'm thrilled to have my lights back. I thought I was looking at major, and often expensive, electrical issues here. This time I got lucky.