Hey everyone. New here. I have a 96 suburu legacy brighton with the 4 cyclinder 5-speed AWD, 212,000 miles.

 

My problem is, I was just driving to the bank drive-thru. All of a sudden the radio quit. Then I noticed the speedo quit, and the temp guage didnt seem to be reading correctly either, and then when I hit the gas, there was little to no power. It felt flooded, but kept running, but i couldnt get to more than about 5mph.

 

Does this sound electrical? somethins as simple as a fuse?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks!

Definitely electrical. I kinda wanna say a bad ground connection. I'll take a look in the FSM real quick and see if any of that is connected.

 

Probably a good idea to check all the fuses under the hood and in the panel under the dash. Check the fusible link as well.

Edited July 26, 201015 yr by Fairtax4me

Sounds like it might be an electrical problem.

 

Does it have the original alternator?

 

How old is the battery?

 

These are the first things I'd have checked out.

 

Oh yeah, Welcome to the board!!!!

Sounds like alternator to me. Have it tested for voltage with the car running, if it will. Should be between 13.5v - 14.5v DC. (Try to test around 1800rpms if it will, if you have a helper.)

It's unlikely that a single bad fuse would explain the multiple failures.

 

Are any dash warning lights on? If the lights for brake and battery are lit with the engine running, it's likely that the alternator has failed.

 

If neither of those are on, you might have a poor connection in an area of major power distribution. Sometimes a bad ignition switch can cause this sort of problem.

I would go after the positive battery connection and the grounds. If the voltage drops below a certain amount the ecu and friends aren't happy.

Was the barke light on? If it was im going with the alt.

 

Turn everything on.

Rev and hold engine at 1800 RPM

Read voltage at battery.