Cougar

Hopefully this is just a thermostat issue. I hate to bring up the other possibility but the problem may also be due to a leaky headgasket and it is forcing air into the coolant. If you are getting bubbles in the reservior this may be the problem.

I would suspect that the easiest way to do what you want to do is to tap into the audio lines between the CD changer and the head unit. If I was doing this I would install a switch to tie either system to the head unit and not just run them in parallel, though this may not effect the two units audio if you do. You should be able to keep the sub working by doing it this way. I don't have any wiring info for doing this mod.

The problem is most likely due to a faulty relay and tapping it while the problem is occuring may get the motor going to prove that. Look for the relay under the dash on the left side. There are other relays their also. The blower relay has a neutral color connector going to it. The fuel pump relay has a green connector, ignition is brown, and sun roof is red. The power to the blower through the relay is from fuse 21 and the control is through fuse 15.

If the blower doesn't work on high speed then the motor is most likely going to need to be replaced or the relay is intermittent. You can check to make sure that voltage is getting to the motor connections when the trouble is happening to verify that it is the motor at fault. If the motor is ok then the problem may be due to a faulty blower relay.

You need to check those fuses I mentioned then. Also check the SBF-3 fuse in the engine compartment panel.

Here is another clean way of tapping power through the fuses. The tap replaces the fuse and then the original fuse along with the new fuse are placed in the holder. The new circuit is connected to the wire. If you use the fuse panel then be sure to mount it in a protected area. I would run a new line from the battery that is fuse protected to provide power to the new panel. You may also want to add a relay in the line to turn on with the ignition switch so power is cut when the ignition is off.

I suppose there may be a power problem to the fuel pump. If that checks out ok then it may be time to replace the pump.

Yeah. We just can't assume that everything is wired together like it was in "the old days".

Today is your day Justin. I happen to be looking at my refernce for a '95 Impreza right now. Here is the info you need. Power to the radio is provided by the Yel/red wire (tied to fuse 17) and goes to pin 10 of the original radio. The memory power is on the Blu/org wire and goes to pin 6 (tied to fuse 25 in the engine area). The Yel/blu wire you are trying to use for power is the return wire for the radio illumination and goes on to the illumination control module. The green wire (pin1) is the hot side for the light. Tie your CD light to these wires.

You are correct Nipper and I was aware of that. Since this is a strange problem, with the radio illumination being involved, I did a little research into this. I was not aware of how the radio illumination circuit is designed and this may be why things are doing what they are. It appears the light for the radio is directly tied to power through the tail illumination relay and fuse 9 in the power distribution in the engine compartment. The other side of the light then goes to the illumination control module. The brake lights are tied to power through fuse 12 and the brake light switch. The brake and other tail lights share a common ground. The other tail lights are tied to power through the tail illumination relay along with the radio light. If the left rear lighting common ground connection was bad then the circuit may be backfeeding somehow and "leaking" as you suspected. By checking the voltage of the suspected bad ground of the left tail light with reference to a known good ground point or, making the ground jumper as I stated earlier, would tell if this was true or not.

It sounds to me there is a bad ground connection to the left bulb. The problem may be in the dash area. To see if this is so you can make a long ground jumper lead and place one end on a known good ground connection like the negative side of the battery. Then place the other end on suspected bad ground spots and see if the problem clears.

Have you checked the fuel pressure or checked to see if the fuel filter is clogged? I would replace the filter if that hasn't been done. If that doesn't solve the problem then check the fuel pressure. The pump may be ready for replacement.

Another possibility is the fans are causing noise in the electrical system and that is acting upon the ignition system somehow. I would check the AC component of the electrical system when the fans are 'on' and 'off' to find out if that may be the case or not. Using a good digital meter on the AC volts scale may show up something.

I will get home today and see if I can find out some info for you NW.

The switch should be in the console area near the shifter. It may also be under the floor area there.

Yes, poor connections in the charging circuit will cause the the battery to have less charge than it should have and so this kind of thing happens. A small amount of dimming at idle is pretty normal. As was stated, a loose alternator belt will also cause this to happen. When diodes fail, usually the warning lights in the alternator circuit will glow dimmly.

I think most new style stereo systems require the speaker leads to be isolated from ground. The older style cars like yours tied one of the speaker leads to chassis ground to make the connection to the sound system. I think you will need to remove the ground from the speaker and run a new wire to the stereo unit. The left and right sides can share a common lead but it is isolated from chassis ground. The newer amp designs use a balanced output and so the leads are isolated from ground.

If the old one worked ok and the new one doesn't then it would seem the new one is miswired somehow.

Can you hear the fuel pump run briefly when you turn the key to ON? If not then the FP relay may be the problem.

We got another one!

I think the fuel injected model had one also.

Make sure the battery connections, fusible links and alternator connections are in good clean shape. Check the voltage of each wire going to alternator. They all should be close to the battery voltage. Also make sure the battery warning light turns on when the key is turned from OFF to ON.

You may be able to just tape the end of the wire and store it. Attach the other two leads as you stated and leave the B/W taped by itself. Start the car and turn some of the lights and blower on. Check the battery voltage to make sure that the battery voltage is around 13.5 volts when you rev the engine to around 2k RPM. If the battery stays charging then you don't need that wire tied to the alternator. Since it ties to the battery though it must be isolated from ground and any other things so tape it well.

I would think if there was a delay circuit for this then it would be in a box under the dash somewhere.

Unless there is another amp between your unit and the speakers then the speakers should tie directly to the unit. Checking the resistance of each of the speakers like TD mentioned should tell the story.