What does a suddenly rapidly-blinking turn signal mean?
Fuse going - or is it the bulb??? Or worse? :eek:
You probably have a light out. Turn you hazards on when you get home and walk around the car to see which one is out.
light still working. assuming it is 10amp fuse on its way out, but i wanted to get other input.
No, it’s not the fuse.
It’s either a bulb out (check both front, back, and side), of the flasher itself.
Fuses either work or they don’t. There is no “on the way out.”
Rapid flashing on one side, with normal flashing rate on the other side, means a bulb has failed. If the flasher is only working with one bulb instead of two, for example, the lowered resistance results in a faster blinking rate.
Rapid flashing on both sides, with no bulbs burnt out, is caused by the flasher.
Note that some vehicles have more than one turn signal bulb on some corners, so it’s possible to get rapid flashing from a failed bulb (or bulbs) even though there’s still a blinking bulb in each corner of the car.
I didn’t do it! Nobody saw me do it!
You can’t prove anything!
This, practically 100% certain.
Turn on the hazard-lights and do a walk-around and see what you find. If nothing wrong, then check the other lights on vehicle, getting a friend to help you. It is not uncommon to have bulbs with two (or more) filaments in them, such as brake lights that also function as turn signals, etc, so you may want to have a buddy stand and watch as you work the switches/pedal as needed. It may be helpful to turn on headlights (for side/marker lights) while checking things out.
If all bulbs work 100%, then its likely the flasher-thing. I doubt that though, ime…bulbs fail a lot more often, ime.
ETA: exactly as Gary T says
ROTFLMAO!!! my deepest apologies, blinkingblinking. i’d forgotten there was a user here with that name. and for the record, no, he/she didn’t do it.
update: boy nothing gets by the queen, fellow dopers. :rolleyes:
when i got home from work yesterday, i finally did a walk-around. imagine what i had to say for myself when i got to the right front light housing. not only was the bulb out, it was OUT. the dang thing had pulled loose from the socket and had been apparently rattling around in there like a ping pong ball in a can.
a quick trip to the local auto zone, a batted eyelash or two, 
and once again, the queen had a properly functioning turn signal on The Princess once more.
My previous car would periodically do the rapid-flashing thing when I turned on the left turn signal. Both signal lights were working, but it would still rapid-flash.
I discovered by trial and error that if I slapped the left front signal cover with the flat of my hand while this was happening, things would go back to normal. For a week or two. Then the left turn signal would start the rapid-flashing thing again and the car would require another upside-the-head palm slap.
Probably a bad connection in the signal path somewhere. I must have mentioned it to the Toyota folks a dozen times, but they never found a problem because things were always working fine when they were looking at it.
The problem finally went away (for me) when I traded in the car.