2009 Nissan Altima Signals and e flashers not working

Maintenance/Repairs
,
1

So one morning I noticed that my turn signals and emergency flashers were not working. The way I discovered this was that none of my internal indicators came on when my signal was engaged. Break lights, head light, and high beams all still work. I have checked the bulbs and fuses all of which are fine. I spoke with some car friends and they suggested the flasher relay or signal replay. I went to two different auto parts stores and both said that they could not find a part for my car. I called the dealership parts department and they said no there is no such part however they did have a light relay. When I asked if this part would affect the turn signals and emergency flashers they stated they did not know what the part did. I am kind of at a loss.

I’m no mechanic but I am pretty handy with my car and know lots of hobby mechanics for the things I cannot do myself. I am willing to take it to a shop however when they all charge for diagnosis I am hesitant. Mainly because I do not want to have two or more diagnosis to confirm one shops theory. I know this might be a bit silly however I come from a small town and with now living in a big city I tend to be overly cautious in these scenarios. This may also be due to my husband have no car experience and knowing that he got over charged a few times for repairs at near by shops (ie they charged him 60 for an air filter replacement and wanted to charge him 250 for stud replacements).

Please help I am at a loss and my commute each day tends to push 3 hours in heavy traffic and now I tend to be that person that seems to not know how to turn on my signal.

2

This may not be simple to solve. It appears your car uses a computer module to do this function, called the body control module (BCM). The BCM reads the state of the turn signal switches (presumably on the column) and then flashes the lights on and off under computer control. Same for the emergency flashers. There is no flasher/turn signal relay or similar device on this car as far as I can tell. That would be the place to look if your car had one, so your friends are correct in their comment, but that’s not how it is done on your car.

The first thing to ask your mechanic to check – assuming that the bulbs have been verified to be ok – is the fuses which are associated with the BCM. There are some 10 amp fuses involved in this circuit it appears. Where they are located, that should be in the owner’s manual.