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94 Legacy electrical death drain


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Dramatic I know but I don’t know what else to say at this time. 
 

Fresh battery, but I could tell something else was wrong. 
 

Yesterday I pulled into a Wendy’s and put the noisy car in neutral and turned it off to make my transaction. Got my salad and went to start , NO GO. Faaaahhk I thought my battery was good but nope. 
 

Jumped it, had my wife follow me to the store but the car died again just a hundred yards or so. Really went into limp mode or dying mode just a few seconds after taking off. 
At the same time I notice I’m out of gas too ! Yeah it was a rare one of those days kind of moment. After turning red we retrieved a gas can at my storage fairly local, got gas, and tried to jump it again but as soon as I took the cables off it went to death spasm. So I declared the battery totally spent and bought a new one for the “starting at” cost of $178 , I laughed way too loud and too long in the store when the kid said “they start at $178” . This car won’t be with us longer so I went cheapest. 
 

Installed the battery , had fresh gas , and it ran fine. Drove home , went to work later , went to storage at lunch all no issues. Then I head home from work , no problem on the parkway/highway , then almost home the car starts to crap again. And yeah now the fuel is low too but this is truly not a fuel issue.

Will not start. Acting like the battery is drained out. No lights on dash but I’m guessing I’d better have that alternator checked now. But I think this is related to a faulty neutral/lock out switch or grounding. 
 

Half asleep. I’ll fill in more later. I just left the car a couple blocks away or so. Have not tested anything yet

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Yeah I’d agree. Just that by old school standards I’d see a light or have weak enough headlights that I’d have noticed. 
 

Hot as all hell now. I’ll dig out an alternator from storage and swap it in next chance. 
 

Cheap rump roast replacement from the box store is what’s on the car now. Pretty sure I have a good original unit. I’ll find out soon. And you will too. Tune in for the exciting conclusion .....

 

This is why folks like us get the AAA Plus Plan. 

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But I’ll mention this again. Something happened weird when I shut the car off in neutral. And it still seems reluctant get out of park easily. Yes I know about the release button but haven’t depressed it yet. I’ve been depressing the brake pedal many times to finally get it to release. That was to get it on and off the flatbed. 
 

Bad feeling about the neutral or interlock switch, maybe grounding. But I’ll have that alternator swapped soon and take it from there. 
 

 

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1 hour ago, moosens said:

Just that by old school standards I’d see a light or have weak enough headlights that I’d have noticed. 

yeah, normally you would, in a dying situation... but i think yours is beyond that.

and as you well know.. aftermarket alts are just crapola - hopefully things are not severely damaged.

might also be a good idea to go thru main box & fuse box, make sure there is nothing is blown.

 

keep us posted on the neutral switch.

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Thanks , yeah I sure was going to check all the fuses and fusible links etc 

 

In fact that happened when I swapped in this crapola aftermarket alternator... 

 

Now somebody direct me to the Spare Time Department so I can buy some. 

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Looking pretty straight forward now. $27 used alternator from a family owned yard up in the valley. Maybe spent $10 in gas too but well worth the drive. 
 

Fusible link looked fine. Fuses  also. And now the shifter seems as it should although that lock out switch can be sticky. 
 

Drive on !

Edited by moosens
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Indeed , that first version 2.2 

Yes the Naugy valley , I live in beautiful Bridgeport. Seymour Auto Wrecking on Rt 67 east of 8. Found them to be a throw back. Treated kindly with respect and with just a few minutes until they closed. 
 

The others yards I remember you’d be lucky if they didn’t harass you for walking in at that time. Anyways , life in CT pushing older Subarus around. I’m that guy. 
 

Now about this car. Torn in two directions at least. Keep it , sell it , or take the engine and goodies out for my 79 wagon ? 
 

 

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Yeah I just have to see what kind of hurdles I have to jump now with the DMV here. My insurance company hasn’t said boo. The DMV hasn’t said boo. But the other party’s insurance who paid me off well and totaled the car on value - they sent me some letter I have to run by my attorney. I’m a little confused. It looks like I may have a simple option but then again - it’s a confusing and I have an attorney for this mess anyways. 
 

So , what they told me on the phone back when was that due to its age here in CT they were letting me run the car regardless. But told me that if I sold the car the next owner would need a full inspection. 
 

Rear ended , still coming along but I’ll be fine. Chiropratic seems to help. Therapy, keep stretching , that stuff. 
 

But more importantly the car is ok too. Doesn’t look perfect but it’s completely operational. Same as the driver.

So reluctant to drive newer cars. And my wife could care less too. Old stuff we can fix. And like Rick GD says these new cars aren’t worth owning. 
I think we’ll put my wife in a leased car soon with the maximum insurance so you don’t get screwed three days out of the showroom etc etc. 

Ok you got a little rant here. 
Cheers

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nothing wrong with a small rant or two. ;)

I feel pretty much the same regarding newer cars... newest we have here is a 2006 H6 LL Bean Outback.. still going along pretty well.. has a periodic CEL, nothing of any significance, but enough to kill the cruise control... pull out the code reader, clear the code, good for another month or two

my daily is a 04 Forester & we have an 05 for parts (car was brought in to the salvage place my other half works to be scrapped - his boss let us have it for a parts car - only has 168K or so. bringing it home has already paid off... my front power windows crapped out - both of them... was the motors that died... pulled the necessary parts from the 05 and I have functioning windows again, YAY!

kinda got bummed the other day... found an 05 LL Bean Forester for 500 - motor supposedly shot.. but found out it had been sitting in the weeds for at least a year.. all that damp is not good so we passed on it.

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Yeah I have to stop myself going forward from two things related to our “trade”. 
 

Must stop taking in cars that have sat over anything but pavement.

Must stop looking at Craigslist for $500 beaters that need work. 
 

The latter is much more difficult to shake. But now I really don’t have a good local spot to work on the big jobs like yanking the engine etc. So they got me. They finally got me. Hence the mention of a leased new (hurts to type that word) ride for my wife. 
 

Closing chapters and hopefully writing some new ones.

 

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I’ll add that that cars we find now for $500 are full of industry planned obsolescence and inconvenience to the backyard mechanic compared to the awesome $500 beaters I was able to pick up right through the 2000’s. 
 

Different world now. Not one company treats their customers as Subaru did once upon a time. 

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