Thanks for all the help you folks have provided in the past. I've got a new problem for you all.

 

My 98 Forester's power door locks stopped working a week or so ago. I replaced the fuse, and the next time I hit the power lock button it worked, but blew the fuse once again.

 

I know very little about the electrical components of cars, but I do have a little experience with multimeters and wiring. Any suggestions on how to go about fixing this problem?

 

Thanks!!

Any ideas?

You need to take the door panel out and inspect the wiring for shorts. You can also bypass the switch as it may also be the problem. Unfortunately if you can't visually see the short or the switch is good, you may need to do find the problem the old fashion way, with an ohm meter and a technical schematic.

If you can find the disconnect plugs for the different doors you can start disconnecting them one at a time to see if one of the solenoids is loading the system down, or if one of the door wire harnesses has a short. Maybe the problem is at the back hatch, try disconnecting that one first.

 

I have no idea where these connectors may be. Good luck.

Wahoo,

 

Any luck with the fuse.

 

I just cleaned my car the other day and now I am blowing fuses like candy.

 

BW

Tiny gave good advice. Divide and conquer.

I've been to lazy to tackle the problem... which is silly, because I'm sure I've spent more time walking around to lock/unlock passenger doors now than it would've take me to just investigate the problem in the first place.

 

Maybe I'll finally try to fix it this weekend, using the "divide and conquer" strategy. Anyone know where the door connectors I should unplug are?