"Smart" switch
 

Here's the deal. When I put my left turn signal on it won't turn off automatically. I was wondering if my switch that controls that has gone thhbbbb. I thought maybe I had a bad bulb or flasher but the owners manual said the corresponding arrow will blink faster. Any ideas on what might be wrong? I think it costs like 70$ to replace at the dealer, so no worries there.

Not the switch. There's a small plastic cam plate in the steering column that turns these off. The part itself is less than 10 bucks (called the 'signal cancel cam') but it's a major PITA to get to. You're pulling the wheel for it.

That's an old school problem there.

When you make turns do you hold on to your turn signal to keep it from shutting off?

No, it will stay on but turning the wheel doesnt turn it off. I have to manually move the lever up so it stops signaling

But before it broke, did you have a habit of holding the turn signal on when it wanted to shut off automatically when making turns? This habit can cause the cam to break.

Nope. In my 95 SE the spring for the high/low beams broke, thankfully I had the low beams on when that happened. It was a pain to replace :roll:

That's how I broke the turn signal cancel cam on a couple of other cars. i had to lose the bad habit.

damn, i do that all the time. i'll have to remember not to.

Ayup; I'm thinking that the problem here is not the cam but the spring _on_ the cam. There's a cancelling finger that's supposed to catch as you unwind the wheel after a turn, but when the spring breaks, it no longer presses on the cancelling finger to release the turn-signal switch.

They sell the springs separately at GM and in the Motormite "HELP!" line of aftermarket parts. Unfortunately it still takes the same amount of dismantling to get the new springs installed as it does to replace the entire turn-signal switch assembly. :-(