So, this wasn't MY car, but rather my cousin's 97 Chevrolet Lumina sedan. His brake lights stopped working, but the CHMSL still worked. His mechanic told him it was the multifunction turn indicator switch that had failed, and quoted him $500 to replace. My cousin wasn't willing to dump that much money in such an old car, and asked me to help.
I researched the problem and confirmed that it was indeed the turn indicator multifunction switch that had failed, and that it was actually a pretty common problem. The part is contained within the steering column, which necessitates removal of the steering wheel and disassembly of the steering column. I took my cousin to partsource so that he could buy the part ($100), borrow a steering wheel puller ($80 refundable deposit), and purchase a pair of snapring pliars ($8.99). I had the rest of the required tools, complimentary of my decade of fixing cars in the driveway.
We ended up fixing his car with no problems. Took us 2 hours to complete: disable the airbag, remove airbag, pull steering wheel, remove airbag coil, remove lockplate, and finally remove the faulty switch. Had to remove some dashpanels so we could disconnect the old wiring and reconnect the new wiring (after threading through steering column). Finally reassemble in the reverse order of disassembly. And now I can say that I've disassembled a steering column. Pretty simple assembly, actually. Newer vehicles probably have a TON more wiring though. The only wiring this one had going to the steering wheel itself was for the horn and the airbag.
All in all, 2 hours of work, free breakfast, hanging out with my cousin working on cars, and he let me keep the snapring pliars, to boot. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday morning. Oh, and saved him $400, too!!
