dash lights came on then just stopped running. Can not turn key and can't get out of gear. Has an old battery.THANKS

"out of gear" - a manual transmission?

details of what the car did will help. were you driving it when this happened? did the engine cut off, then you drifted or what?

 

guess you'll first need to turn the key, get it out of gear, and be able to try and turn the motor over?

 

is it just that the steering wheel is locked?

 

once you get past that:

 

bad electrical (alt, batter, connections, starter) - jump it.

 

broken timing belt

 

any check engine light?

automatic eh.....

Either get a good battery in there, or check, double check, triple check the electrical connectors to the trannsmission, there are two larger connectors, up by the firewall transmission top area. Recent transmission work?

 

The auto tranny has to have electrical charge, and if the connector to it is not fully seated, it will cause this, trust me, i Had it happen once too.

i agree check the electrical connectors (negative)... a bad alternator and/or battery will do that too.. let us know what happens

the car was moving when it died, so while i was at work my wife had it towed , [ roll off] everything went crazy , got a new battery [ napa] i put new battery ,nothing, so checked fuses all good, went to check linkable fuses and 1 was burnt and broken, so replaced it with one from a hand full i had from a ea82 motor, now it starts fine everything good, but could alt still be bad? and the linkable fuse i used will it work ok or should it haevier ?my wife made the post , it is a a/t awd 2.2 motor 168,000mi , , she ment to say is that it would not come out of park ,after driving it aleast 10 miles with everything on fan, hi brights, rear drfrost, flashers on, no problems, here is one thing i noticed, the old battery sonded different and possible leaking, one thing that needs replaced now the headlight [ bright side] thanks

Edited January 6, 200917 yr by 86subaru

cool, you got it running easy enough!!!

 

i'd get the properly rated fusible link in there. it's probably fine, but it burned up once already, no point in testing fate if it decides to burn up again.

 

be on the look out for whatever caused this. you replaced the battery...does that mean you think that was the problem?

 

terminals are nice and clean and tight? alternator is good?

whats the best way to test the alternator ?and what is the proper fuseable link for my 95 legacy

Have a shop do a load test on the charging system. That will show what shape the battery and alternator are in and if something more needs to be done.

 

The fusible link should be color coded to show the correct size. If there is a doubt to the correct size then you could check with the dealer or someone here may be able to help you with that if you told us which one you are questioning. As far as the cause of the first one burning out there may be an intermittent short somewhere. Keep some spares with you in case you need them later.

whats the best way to test the alternator ?and what is the proper fuseable link for my 95 legacy

 

If you have a MM connect it to the battery with the car running @ idle you should see 13.5 - 14.5 DCvolts. That will tell you that the alt is working. As to what burned the link to begin with is a job for a shop. If the battery was bad enough it could have had an internal short that would have fried the link to save the alt.

thanks, some one told me to unhook the + side of the battery while car is running and this will tell if the alt is ggod or bad, , i think i will use my mm instead

thanks, some one told me to unhook the + side of the battery while car is running and this will tell if the alt is ggod or bad, , i think i will use my mm instead

 

This is not a good idea on a car with a computer. Kinduv an old school trick that doesn't carry over well to newer vehicles.