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Troubleshooting Ford e-250 turn signal problem
For work, I drive a 2011 E-250 van. My boss just bought it about 3 weeks ago. It has around 150k miles and is overall in pretty good shape and runs/drives great.
However, from the first day we picked it up at the sellers lot, the turn signals have been acting up. Being used, there's no warranty so I'm trying to figure out the problem and fix it. First off, at no point did the turn signals ever cancel after completing a turn. I have to manually turn them off. The day we picked it up, the lever would not stay in the up(right directional) position. I had to hold it to keep it on. The seller took it around back to their garage and 5 minutes later, it was working again, and we went on our way. The next day, it wouldn't stay up again. Then the day after that, it worked again with nothing being fixed or messed with. Two days later, the lever wouldn't stay in the down (left) position, but would stay up fine. Next time driving it, lever would stay up and down normally. It's not a consistent failure. Sometimes it lasts a day, other times just a few blocks.
At first I though that maybe part of the cancelling cam had broken off and is loose inside the column or multi-function switch and is randomly getting stuck/jammed in the lever causing the signals not that stay up or down. After looking into that theory, turns out that Ford did away with cancelling cams in the mid-2000's so that can't be the issue. I then found out that the van has a "steering wheel position sensor" that may possibly have a function of cancelling and controlling the directional but I can't be sure since I've been unable to find any real information about it. The multi-function switch is 50-75 bucks and the position sensor is around 50. From just one post I managed to find online, a person with similar issues had changed the multi-function switch with no change but then changed the position sensor and that fixed it. I'm just hesitant to base a diagnosis on a single internet claim.
Any other ideas or suggestions? My boss will obviously pay me to fix the van but I just don't want to waste time and money on swapping out the wrong parts.
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