Electrical Gremlins: 92' SS

Grayguy · Post by **Grayguy** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 3:51 am

Ok, last winter when i started driving my SS, it blew the fusible link a few times. I thought this was because I had my 4 hella 500 lights wired, since it only happened when I turned them on. I drove it all summer and then this fall, it started doing it more and more frequently even when the hellas were not on.

I should mention that at some point I replaced the Fusible link with a circuit breaker with an auto-reset on it. This kinda fixed the issue of the car leaving me stranded, but basically after this when it would "blow" the circuit, the car would keep running, but the radio would shut off and the boost gauge freaks out.

Now jump forward to the last month. It will "blow the circuit" 10-15 times in a 15 mile drive, doesn't matter what I'm using in the car (headlights, radio, heater...etc...) it will still blow. Here is where it gets a little weirder. This past Tuesday, my GF was driving it (her 2.5RS shit the bed but that's another Subaru headache...) and the windshield wipers started randomly going whenever they feel like it.

So, what the hell is wrong with my car? Any ideas? Where should I start, I'm terrible and electrical issue trouble shooting.

cj91legss · Post by **cj91legss** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 6:03 am

turbo timer installed?

Grayguy · Post by **Grayguy** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 6:05 am

Nope.

I removed all the Hella wiring, only non-stock wiring is for the Prosport guages and the Zeitronix wideband.

evolutionmovement · Post by **evolutionmovement** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 1:18 pm

Something might have gotten fried and is causing the problem now. Lots of fun finding the culprit on that. If you can find a it (let me know because I can't find one either), Snap-on used to make this advanced test light that also allowed you to apply power or ground to a wire. Was absolutely awesome when working on boats where you don't know if say, a bilge pump, wasn't working because of a bad wire or dead pump. It would light red for power, green for ground if you probed it and if you had nothing, you could apply power or ground to the wire. If the pump worked, you knew it was a wire (likely corrosion at a terminal). In this case, you're looking for a wire or several where the insulation might have burned off.

cj91legss · Post by **cj91legss** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 5:19 pm

interesting... When i installed my turbo tmer, the timer called for an IGN 1 and IGN2 and ended up hooking up the IGN 2 to something and messed up my harness. it'd come on and off anytime it wanted. did you guys accidently hook something up to your accessory line somewhere?

Grayguy · Post by **Grayguy** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 5:55 pm

Both my Prosports and my Zeitronix draw power straight from the big red ignition wire under the column. Could that be part of the issue?

Post by **Legacy777** » Fri Nov 13, 2009 7:38 pm

How often do you drive the car? Has the battery ever gone dead on you?

Grayguy · Post by **Grayguy** » Sat Nov 14, 2009 12:01 am

The car is driven everyday. I've been driving my truck for the last few weeks, and the GF's been driving the SS until I have time to fix her RS.

The only time the battery ever died was when I took it out to replace a valve cover gasket. I pulled it into the garage, took the battery out, and when I went to put it back in it was completely dead...really weird...

Post by **Legacy777** » Sun Nov 15, 2009 7:29 pm

I would put a multi-meter on it, and with the car off see how many amps are being pulled. There shouldn't be much if any. Obviously if you open a door, the dome light will cause some more, but with everything off, there shoudln't be much.

If you find you have more substantial amperage draw, you may have a short.

Grayguy · Post by **Grayguy** » Sun Nov 15, 2009 8:09 pm

a multimeter on what? just the battery?

Post by **Legacy777** » Mon Nov 16, 2009 4:17 am

You need to have a multi-meter that has the capability to read amperage, or an amp meter.

You need to disconnect either the negative or positive side wiring from the battery. Then you need to hook one side of the meter up to the battery terminal post and the other side up to the wiring you just removed.

You need to be careful because you are now running any power through the meter. Most have a fuse, which will blow if the current draw is too large.

If setup properly, you will be able to see an amperage change when you open the door and the dome light goes on. With the door closed and nothing on, there should be under 1 amp of current draw.

Grayguy · Post by **Grayguy** » Mon Nov 16, 2009 4:42 am

^ ok, looks like I might have to buy a nicer meter mine crapped out.

Grayguy · Post by **Grayguy** » Mon Nov 23, 2009 12:21 am

Ok, well today I swapped in a different fuse box i had from my 93' parts car, and I drove it around for about 20 minutes with out any issues. I'm gonna drive it to work tomorrow and see if it's really fixed.

Grayguy · Post by **Grayguy** » Tue Dec 15, 2009 2:30 am

Ok, after a few more times driving it, the only issue seems to be that the radio/clock resets its self every time it's turned on/off. The weird part is, on the radio (stock) the 1-4 preset buttons reset, but the 5 and 6 dont...It's probably jsut a fuse, but I figured I'd post here

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Electrical Gremlins: 92' SS

Electrical Gremlins: 92' SS