2004 Tribute - Hazard lights come on randomly, hard to turn off, draining battery repeatedly

rsmbob

About 2 months ago, I noticed my hazard lights would come on randomly, often times during the middle of the night, and this would drain my battery completely. When this happens and I catch it, the lights do not turn off with a simple push of the hazard lights button. It takes multiple attempts, a pound on the dashboard, or random luck. Sometimes I will walk away and they come right back on again. My local shop could not diagnose it. Then it stopped for a month before happening a 2nd time for a couple of days and stopped again afterwards. Now a month later, here it goes again. I have taken it in for a full trickle charge and re-test and they say battery is good and starter and alternator are functioning fine as well. Obviously something is severely draining the battery. FYI, nothing is ever plugged in while car is off.

Mechaninc says it is probably a bad hazard light switch OR something with an alarm system....I don't have one activated but their may be one on it (I bought it used).

Any advice here is appreciated.

Bob

Mr_Shiftright

I would replace the hazard relay. It's a guess but a pretty inexpensive one about $30.