electrical woes

[SILINC3R]

so I took my dash out in order to reach the dang blower motor relay. connected the plug with the relay and put dash back in as well as all connections to my knoweldge. i have no dash lights exept for high beam, radio does not light up at all, hvac controller does not light up. i have no turn signals. headlights, parking lights, tail lights, windows, sunroof control all work. check the fuses under the dash nd they were all good. not sure where to begin again. regrouping tomorrow

any thoughts?

[Legacy777]

What year Legacy is this on? All I can suggest is to trace the wiring diagrams and see where the break or issues are.

[SILINC3R]

this is a 91 SS but it shouldnt matter as they the same from 90-94 excluding things like turbo/non-turbo, wagon/sedan, and MT/AT right? also I am leaving to go on patrol again in a couple of weeks and I dont have a garage. I got lucky last night and used a warehouse on base and got caught last night but she didnt tell me to stop, but I don't think I could use it again.

not sure if this helps but there was a blue relay that i plugged in as it was not plugged in, it is located near the windshield on the passenger side just about a foot or so inboard of the pillar. I also wired in the radio from the JY( stock SUBARU radio with aux jack) that i got and may have crossed a speaker wire but im sure that woud not have anything to do with it.

on top of this i noticed on the plug to the motor relay for the blower it was a little burnt like there had been a short, this was also like this on the plug that goes into the blower fan. the fan works but I am hoping the relay blew and all will be well when i fix the lighting situation

[SILINC3R]

so interesting thing I found. I have search for the combination fuse and found it to be #15. checked it and it is not blown. switched it with a good one anyway and still nothing. I then checked the illumination control box which I found in diagrams and from searching to be the problem most of the time this had no effect either. it was plugged in and grounded. I then went my 90 which works and unplugged the illumination control to see if i would get the same problems. i didnt, the dash still worked, radio came on and the HVAC controls as well. I then unplugged the meter fuse (#15) and nothing worked like on the 91. so now i a not sure where to go. if the ill. control box is not the problem and the fuse appears to be fine. is there maybe some way I might have unplugged the fuse box or something.

[SILINC3R]

well since no on has any input i am going to take the dash out again today and undo the harness from the dash and then plug everything in so i can make sure everything is plugged in properly. i will take pictures to for future refference

[Legacy777]

Yeah, it sounds like there is a connector unplugged or some wiring that got yanked too hard and could be causing the problem. Hopefully it's just a connector not plugged in.

I asked about the year and such, because the wiring diagrams are different. My best suggestion is to focus on one thing, like the dash lights and trace the wiring from the source at the fuse box through all the connectors and then to the dash. I've got the diagrams on my server for the 90 legacy non-turbo & 92 turbo. I'm not sure if the 91 turbo is going to be more like the 90 non-turbo or 92 turbo. You may have to just look at both and see if there are any differences.

[SILINC3R]

well i took out the dash and hook everything up. the blower fan and control unit is working now, yea. however i still dont have the dash lights and everything working. i hope it isnt the ill control. ill keep working and get back to yall when im done.

[evolutionmovement]

Best advice is to find the common place and work back from there. Do you have a powered test light? I don't know what they're called exactly, but my old boss had one at the marina. It's like a test light, but you can also hook it up to the battery and apply either power or ground to a wire to test a device or a circuit. Absolutely brilliant tool. I need to get one myself, but like I said, I don't know what they're called.

May or may not be helpful, but my Mazda was doing some weird stuff with the dash control and lights. Started off with the clock randomly resetting at start up sometimes, progressing to the stereo and whole dash going out except for the gauges. Turned out to be a fuse that was improperly seated and made an intermittent connection (but looked friggin' fine the first 10 times I looked at it). The real pisser about it was that the issue presented itself after over a year and it was definitely a factory goof. Take that for whatever it is.

[SILINC3R]

well you wont believe what was wrong. went I plugged the harness in I noticed a leftover plug. I couldnt figure it out and looked and double checked. I then called my good friend and the one who did the engine swap to see if he new what the plug was and where it went. he informed me it went to the bottom of the fuse box . and of course he was correct which was good for me cause that solved the dash problem. so now everything is good. i will be posting pictures soon.

[SILINC3R]

back of the dash


illuination control unit


blue relay that was unplugged. not sure what it does.


what do these do exactly?


think these are for diagnosis


not sure what this is for


this is plugged in but dont know what its for


burnt looking plug that plugs into the hvac controller


burnt looking plug that plugs into the fan blower


burnt looking plug that plugs into the blower motor relay

well hope maybe some of these can be used for reference

[BSOD2600]

"what do these do exactly?"
connectors to enter check modes, get codes, etc.

"think these are for diagnosis"
Yup, yellow is the ODB-I port.

"burnt looking plug that plugs into the hvac controller"
ditto