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what the hell is going on?!1

Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 2:18 am
by Kowalski
My 1991 awd L wagon has been on the goddamn fritz. a day or 2 ago randomly my battery, at oil temp, stop lamp, and brake idiot lights all came on... and my being an idiot ignored them, as my check engine had been going on and off for a while without consequence.

So today i was on an L ride and my radio started turning off and on and i just figured i fucked up my wiring... then a few minutes later i noticed all the idiot lights were gone and i was slightly relived until i realized my gauge cluster wasn't lit at all and i hauled ass back to my friends house to drop him off and the car died right in front of it.

He jumped my car with his sister's figuring if i stayed moving i'd be alright (which i now think was a false assumption as the lights seemed to get brighter and then dim again regardless of speed) and i hauled ass as fast as i could towards my house, and hit a red light car started to sound like ass and by the time i got through the intersection, it seemed to be running on 2, and then 1 cyl, barely moved even at WOT made some lame noises and finally died. Called up a friend to jump me and it started and i hauled ass about a block and pulled into an apartment's parking space and the car died again, at least off the road now. Took the battery home and am gonna borrow neighbor's charger tomorrow and hopefully on a 100% charge i can get the car to my house (~2mi)

So what do you guys think the problem might be? I'm pretty damn sure its my alternator, but i don't know what the at oil temp, stop lamp, or "brake" lights would have to do with it?


extra: only thing i can think of out of the ordinary that happened with the car is that i took the interior fuse cover off to loan someone a fuse and instead of putting it back just put it in my glovebox... is there a particular fuse that i may have knocked loose that caused this?

Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 3:28 am
by Manarius
When the alternator is dying, all the idiot lights come on, including the oil one.

Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 3:37 am
by Murphy
holy crap, the same thing started with my car today! im not even joking!! i was a block from my house and the radio died, i got home and shut the sunroof and it just barely crawled shut and my lights are on too

my dad told me it was the alt. and i just thought it was a bad ground since all the lights were on and that was it, but when i radio died i was praying i was going to make it home
ive got a spare in the garage though

Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 5:52 am
by IronMonkeyL255
Yeah. It's the alt.

Also check the battery. When my alt went out, my battery died with it. The tests at autozone identified the battery as being bad, but said the alternator was good. I ended up taking it to an alternator and starter shop that accurately diagnosed it and then rebuilt it.

Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 2:39 pm
by Kowalski
do you think if i keep all the lights and the stereo off a fully charged battery would get me a mile or 2 home?

Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 8:46 pm
by Murphy
dont try it, unless your absolutely sure you wont hit a stop sign or light, as long as the car keep moving at a good pace it will go but when you hit a light you might get lucky a couple times but it will die

i had to hold the brake an the gas at all the stops so it wouldnt die, then finally it just wouldnt move no matter how much or little gas i gave it, it died at a light, very embarassing

i called a budy and had him pull me with his truck, we jumped it 3 times but it just kept dieing so i put it in neutral and pulled home,
lucky the strap held though, it snapped right as we got in front of my house

Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 10:49 pm
by Kowalski
i said screw it and got a ride back to where i left the car yesterday and ripped the alternator out, took it to autozone to get it checked, it failed, got a new one for like 125$ total drove back and installed it in all of 20 minutes... everything's perfect now. I'm just glad it didn't get towed (i was in an apartment parking lot and i didn't have a window hanger)


i LOVE the alternator placement on these cars. so easy to change.

Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 12:27 am
by IronMonkeyL255
Kowalski wrote:i LOVE the alternator placement on these cars. so easy to change.
Agreed 100%

Almost everything I have done on these cars is easier to do than other cars. Maybe I just think like the Subaru engineers, but I can figure out why they did what they did.

Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 2:34 am
by Kowalski
i swear i read somewhere on the internets about subaru winning some kind of award (around the time our cars were still made) from a group for the EJ or a model containing one (legacy? not sure) being easy to work on? i cant seem to find any mention of it anywhere though, guess I'm just crazy. anyone know what I'm talking about? i tried googling some stuff and didnt find anything

Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 3:43 am
by Murphy
its very simple, with a 10mm and 12mm wrench you can take apart half the motor

Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 4:09 am
by IronMonkeyL255
Murphy wrote:its very simple, with a 10mm and 12mm wrench you can take apart half the motor
Add in a 14 and 19, and the other half is taken care of as well.

Re: what the hell is going on?!1

Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2023 7:07 pm
by snowjunki
So the same dash lights came on all at once last night. 1990 legacy. My assumption was a failing alternator. I've driven about 100km and will try to pick up an alternator in town.
I appreciate that this forum is still online. Easy search too.

Thanks!

Re: what the hell is going on?!1

Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2023 3:18 am
by snowjunki
Got quoted $300 cdn which was their member discount price, another store was lower at $240 but the guy wasn't sure about the difference between the hitachi and mitsubishi model alternators. I confirmed all first gen use the same alternator, so I pulled one put of my 94 turbo wagon after getting stranded in town. Nice old guy in a 87 toyota pickup gave me a boost which got me home.
Love how easy the alternator replacement is

Re: what the hell is going on?!1

Posted: Sun Dec 24, 2023 3:46 am
by Legacy777
Welcome!

Yeah the alternator replacement is pretty easy in these cars!