Jump to content
Ultimate Subaru Message Board

Husker4

Members
  • Posts

    10
  • Joined

  • Last visited

About Husker4

  • Birthday 04/27/1964

Profile Information

  • Location
    Clearwater
  • Interests
    cars, bikes,
  • Occupation
    Weldor/fabricator
  • Biography
    Originally from the Sandhills of Nebraska
  • Vehicles
    98 Legacy L wagon

Husker4's Achievements

Member

Member (2/11)

0

Reputation

  1. Ok, just so this is a completed thread I had to jump the damn car again!...checked it out and once I unplugged the aftermarket radio no more battery drain....so the radio stays out till I get a replacement or find the short in it.
  2. The easiest way to do it and what worked for me was to get a small tube/hose that reaches to bottom of the can of Seafoam. Figure about 2 ft. long. Take the IAC hose loose where it attaches to the intake. Plug the hole left in the intake and put your thumb over the end of the IAC hose. Get your little tube arranged in the bottle of Seafoam. Have someone get in the car and start up with instructions to keep run the throttle just enough so that the engine does not die. With the engine running put the small tube in the IAC hose and the vacum will suck it up like a 10 year old on a milkshake. For more details just read the instructions on the bottle of Seafoam.....and make sure you do this process in a nice open area!! Mine was stalling intermittently and was getting worse. This procedure fixed it up just fine. No hint of a stall since.
  3. I had a similar issue of stalling and did a LOT of searching on here to diagnose. My suggestion is to run some seafoam through the IAC. That is the simplest, cheapest, and most likely fix for the problem. Of course when I did mine I had to go the route of new fuel filter, new fuel pump and blow $100+ before I decided to try the simple solution!...lol....While I was at it I replaced the pcv valve. Makes sense since if the IAC is gunked up the pcv likely is also and the pcv valve is only $2.00 at the parts store.
  4. Ok, so I puttered with it some more. And now the vanity lights work ad so does the lighter and there is no more of the odd thing with the fans coming on and off. All I did this time was change out the fuse that I had burnt for the lighter. I checked out the red wire and it just led up to the mirrors and had no nicks in it anywhere. Bought new fuses for the Multi-meter and put them in and rechecked for battery drain. I had it on the 10amp pin and had a reading of '196'...if I opened the door that reading went to '283' due to the open door indicator in the dash. (I had both dome lights turned off) none of the interior fusebox fuses caused a voltage drop. Under the hood, when I pulled the "clock, room" fuse the reading dropped to 005. I'm a little fuzzy on whether that's ok as the meter didn't use a decimal point. Please note that though I have really good meter I'm not nearly as good at this as the meter is...lol (it's a Fluke 88 meter if that makes any difference)
  5. Good spot on the burnt fuses in my multi-meter. The ONLY place that had them was ACE Hardware-not even Radio Shack had the right fuses. They are a little pricey but they almost always have the oddball nut/bolt or screw, etc. that you need. Is always good to check there if you need the piece right away.
  6. Thanks this is all good information. I just went out and looked and found the two green connectors, looks like they would plug into each other but they are hanging separately and no wire connecting them. For curiosity's sake and general info, what kind of testing would one be doing when these are connected with a wire and why would they appear to mate with each other and not be plugged in to each other?? Regarding the grn/red wire: I took off the side kick panel and below the fusebox found what may be a previous owner patch job. There is a red wire attached to the grn/red wire with a plastic splice connector. The red wire runs up the drivers side A-pillar and goes under the headliner toward the visor. That doesn't seem like a factory wiring solution to me???? And yes I looked and the vanities and lighter are on the same fuse so I burnt the fuse and that makes sense why it's not causing the fan thing anymore. Thanks again for the help. I'm getting a better feel for the car but really wish I had a full shop manual, this would be lots easier with pictures!!!...lol
  7. Cougar, thanks for the reply. I can tell from your suggestions and questions that "Elite Master of the Subaru" is no hoax!...If you're patient enough I'm sure we can figure this out. I'm used to working on 87/88 tbird turbo coupes but on those I had a full shop manual to hand. I don't yet have one for my Subaru so I'm trying to muddle through with a little help. thanks 1. fan on, fan off situation--I had the driver's side sun visor unscrewed. There is a ground there for the visor. With the visor flap open, when I touched that ground back to the roof the fans came on. 2."... the test and diagnostic connectors under the dash are connected together. Have you checked that?"---no I haven't....was not even aware that could be a possibility. I do have an Actron code reader and that just plugs in, never thought to check for anything like you talk about...Can you give me a little more info on that? What it looks like, why someone would have connected it? 3. regarding the blown fuse in the meter. That makes sense. I couldn't figure out how it could be a complete zero draw. Just to double check my work I did take it to the parts store and have them check the alternator and specifically asked them to check the diodes....everything read fine and he also checked for a draw and it showed just a very few milliamps. I didn't mention earlier that part of this process was fixing some radio issues. The previous owner installed an aftermarket radio and had some bare wires left hanging. I connected the one speaker wire that was undone and taped up the other unused bare wires. Then today when I was driving around I noticed my cigarette lighter doesn't work anymore (did get a spark there when i was taking the radio trim piece out. Not sure if it's related but today I also opened the visor flap and I did not notice the engine pulling down. Additional note: the vanity lights have never worked. Not an issue for me personally but might be useful data.
  8. Yes, I'd agree about the short in the vanity circuit there somewhere. What I was hoping for was that there would be some specific location where this short normally happens...(that's what I was hoping for!)...As far as the A-pillar cover...I don't see how it comes off..not screws anywhere and I don't want to just blindly start prying on it and break clips or whatever. Also, with the oddity of the vanity short making the engine fans turn on...a real electrical whiz on these cars would be able to locate the short because of that odd anomaly.
  9. I believe I have 2 separate electrical issues that I discovered while trying to solve an intermittent battery drain problem. This is a (used) new car to me and have been slowly fixing minor things wrong. 1. I have a Fluke mulitmeter and tested the alternator for a bad diode. I get a reading both ways coming out the alternator so per what the book says this means it can drain off the battery. Does it make sense that this could be intermittent? Is this part of the alt. recall I've heard about?? 2. I have an odd situation with the vanity mirrors. The passenger side vanity mirror has no 'flap' to cover up the mirror and activate it's switch. Neither set of vanity lights work. If i open the driver's side vanity 'flap' it pulls down the engine, but still no lights. If i undo the ground located on driver's side vanity mirror there is no reaction. Also with the engine off I did this test and when I opened the vanity 'flap' the engine fans came on. (this is with key on engine off) Like wise touch the ground and fans come on, release the ground fans go off. 3. I also did the battery drain check per the fluke book and got zero readings--nothing at all. With the drivers side door open I would guess that it would show some kind of draw just for the 'open door' indicator.??? Electrical stuff always winds up making me tear my hair out!!! Any help or additional diagnoses wout be appreciated. Love that you guys have this site, I've gleaned tons of info already and fixed a stalling problem with the car already just from searching....thanks! I'm currently going to 'get by' by undoing the battery ground when in use...the alternator charges just fine.
  10. Plain old "White Out", is what I used to use on race-car tires. You wouldn't believe how long it lasts, and looked fine from the grandstands. The other thing that might work is a Dykem white paint pen. They'll mark on anything and come in all kinds of colors. http://www.dymon.com/dymon-category.php?category=74
×
×
  • Create New...