Yesterday a new "irk" new showed up. Activing the turn signal, either left or right, sometimes causes the blinker to get "stuck" in the on position.

It's really weird, because sometimes it will act normal and start blinking but then get stuck. But turning the signal off manually and turning it back on fixes it. Then it didn't happen all day today. I thought it might be the stalk but I looked around and couldn't find anything there.

Any ideas? It's definitely not a burned out bulb, otherwise it would blink twice as fast. . It's not a fuse, because the problem is intermittent. I did change the bulbs about 3 months ago, and replaced them with the 1157 (can't remember the number) long lifes, could that be the problem? But that was a while ago.

brian t
97 1.8T qs at

Sounds like a long shot to me but the long life bulbs could be the problem. Long life usually means a heavier than normal filament. Heavier filament means more current, just the opposite of having one bulb out, which is less current, and your car is acting the opposite. On the other hand it may be the blinker relay which would probably be the worst case and they're not expensive and they're easy to replace. Make sure your turn signal lamps are actually on when they're stuck. If they aren't then you definately go for the relay. Couldn't (shouldn't) be the stalk cause it just feeds 12V to the system. If anything is happening the stalk is doing its job of providing voltage and it should be good.
P

Of course, after the service guy played with the 4-way hazard flashers, he couldn't re-create the problem. It came back twice within a few dozen miles then went away for good.
At our 5000 mile check-up the 4-way flasher signal/relay unit was replaced as a precautionary measure.

Thanks for the input! Glad to know that it's probably something that's reasonable to fix. The problem hasn't happened yet again today. So if it does, I"ll try a) replacing the bulbs with the normal bulbs just for kicks, b) go after the flasher/relay

Had the same problem after 1 month. Took it to the dealer who had to order the flasher assembly which contols the turn signals. Works fine after 3 weeks.