bear with me, im on my phone lol.... so my flasher started makin an awful buzzing noise the other day, i figured it was shot and was gonna pick one up, but i tried the one out of dads ram and same thing...... what would cause this? no blinkers sucks! and are the hazards controlled through it too? mine havent worked since ive had the truck. theres an empty spot there in the fuse panel but dads has it too and his work....

 

no one has any ideas? wheres all the df electrical gurus when ya need em?

 

Bumpin this cause it's on it's way to page 3 and I need to tackle this later today after I get some sleep.

Surely someone can point me in the right direction? I hate chasing electrical gremlins... All I know is that it was fine the other night when I came home from my dad's, and 20 minutes later I went out to get in it and I could hear this weird loud buzzing noise which I tracked down to the relay.... And switching in a known working one from dad's ram does the same thing

 

somewheres in 99-00 dodge went with a combo flasher,turn/hazards all in one flasher.older rams have 2 sep flashers,one for turn,one for hazards.id suspect your dads is a new ram with one flasher as you only see one with one empty slot and both turn and hazards work.your 98 will have 2 flashers so your missing a flasher for your hazards and yours dont work and wont with a missing flasher.purchase 2 new flasher(turn/hazards)for a 98 and you should be golden.

 

New flasher won't help, I swapped it with an identical(part no. and everything), known working flasher out of dads truck. Still does the same thing.

I've been out messing with it, and here's what I've found... It will work fine (no noise, blinkers working) if my hazard switch is off. Turns out it must have been on for ages, but since my hazards have never worked for some odd reason I never realized it. When I switch on the hazard button with either flasher in it starts the buzzing sound... It's gotta be something wrong with the truck, as my flasher works in his, and his acts the same in mine. I tried wiggling the steering column and multifunction switch but doesn't seem to affect anything. I've got my blinkers working so that's a plus, but I still need to figure out what the hell is causing this, and investigate why my hazards have never worked. I have just always been under the impression that they didn't work cause I was missing the hazard relay on account of the empty space directly above the flasher, but after seeing that dad's doesn't have anything here either, I dunno.....


for the record, all my auxiliary wiring does not tie into the truck's existing wiring at all, I have my rollbar lights and stuff wired up through relays then directly to the battery, so I doubt it's anything I've caused

 

I'm having flasher problems too, the only thing I can think of is either a grounding issue or a messed up connector somewhere.

 

My flashers would not work either. Replaced the one flasher for the hazards and they work again. My 97 has 2 flasher in the fuse box in the dash so maybe you are missing one ? Buddies 99 only has one flasher so maybe 98 is the hit n miss year. What year truck does the dad have ? For as cheap as a flasher is id replace it.

 

Well here's something odd.... just for fun at work tonight I hit my hazards to see if it would buzz, and they worked!! I tried em a couple times and the buzz would still happen but I can get them to come on now... They haven't worked for the whole 2 years I've had the truck, and now this?

It's not the flasher, it must be somewhere in the wiring. The good, fully functioning flasher from my dad's 99 is the identical flasher to the one in my 98, same part number, same everything, and it was doing the same buzzing thing when I tried it in my truck. And his has the exact same setup in the fuse panel, square flasher relay (looks just like a normal relay with 5 blades, but these ones are both blue) on bottom and an empty space for something similiar above it. This is where I have always assumed the hazards flasher should be, and thats why my hazards never worked...

I'm thinking maybe it's where the column tilts, although I haven't had any other problems relating to that since I've had it.

 

The speed of the flasher relay depends on the current. This means the lower the current the faster it will flash. Thats why some LED turn signal bulbs will cause problems without adding an additional load resistor and thats why it will blink faster with a defective bulb.
The fast relay switching you hear as a "buzz" is because of no load for the flasher relay.
Imho possible causes for your problem are broken wires between the relay and the signal/hazzard switch at your already mentioned column tilt or a defective turn signal/hazzard switch.

 

Probably grounding out somewhere due to a loose connection/burned insulation issue. The buzzing sound is a likely a side effect of this. Where does the buzz originate from? Is it in the steering column, or the pdc?

If its from the steering col: try turning on the hazards until you hear the sound, then tilt your steering all the way up and down (and repeat a few times if necessary). If the hazards come on soon after this, take apart the column and locate the wires from the hazard switch. Follow these wires and check for any burned spots/loose ground connections (might have to extend your search to include under the dash as well). If you don't turn up any results this way, you can try disconnecting the switch, and manually connecting the wires that lead to it. If the hazards come on, you got yourself a bad switch.

If its from the pdc: I'll need more info. I'm what you might call a shade tree electrician, and am not comfortable messing with the pdc unless I know exactly what I'm looking for.

EDIT: Actually, it would be better to tilt all the way down, then slowly up