Yabo

To say the least, I'm depressed from another ride home in a tow truck...

Basically, the car's been shutting off randomly (fuel pump not running and no warning light on teh dash). It would come back after a few minutes everytime until this time.

I would jump all over a bad solder in the dme or something.. but here's the thing...
Last time I drove it (today) before it died.. suddenly wipers and blower motor stopped working (wipers stuck halfway up the windshield) and came back on once the car died. I need to know if its even possible without spending thousands of dollars to have a shop diagnose the problem beyond a "you're screwed" explanation?

Previous to today (and still this way)
- the passenger headlight won't work with brights, but the voltage appears correct until a bulb is plugged in.. then it's gone
-two days ago driver side blinker won't work, again with any bulb. Haven't tested voltage on that yet
-window motors stopped working randmoly a couple times, then also came back after sitting for a while.


And it's not like I don't have some ability to diagnose and it's not like I haven't tried either...
I have put in the iceshark battery cable kit (with supplemental positive and negative.
new alternator
cleaned and dielectric greased all grounds in the engine bay.
cleaned and dielectric greased EVERY electrical connection in the engine bay
cleaned and dielectric greased EVERY fuse and EVERY relay blade..
tried different DME relays
tested voltages at relays the best I could/know how..

I just think I'm beyond my ability here.. and don't even know where to turn, or if it's even realistic.. I'm not looking for a free answer... I'm just looking for some kind of direction. thanks for any help

KuHL 951

You have done just about everything imaginable it sounds like. Intermittent shorts are the worst. I would think that something might be amiss in your main harness with all the weird stuff happening. Has your ignition switch ever acted up before? Not that it would cause any of the lighting wiper issues. I have no idea how you could trace every circuit down in the harness unless the problem was always constant. I think even a good shop with electrical experience will have a tough time on this one. Keep us posted and I hope it's something simple.

MM951

Did any wires get pinched when you were putting the motor back in? I pinched a wire inside the loom near the clutch housing and was having electrical problems until I traced and repaired the faulty wire (what a PITA that was getting to)

951North

Not directly related to the pcar, but close, my VW had alot of the same issues you speak of, it was the ignition switch(things started dying off then no start at all). Another suspect would have been the "load reduction" relay, the relay that shuts everything off while you are cranking the starter... not what you wanted to hear, another "hail mary" attempt I know. Is it possible to over dielectric grease something or is dielectric grease not conductive (please excuse my ignorance here). How pristine was the harnesses when you bought the car? and have you spliced into it?

KuHL 951

The dielectric grease thing throws many people off. Use dielectric grease (non-conductive) where you do not want electrical leakage such as spark plug boots and conductive compounds (not grease) where you want better electrical contact between mating contacts such as plug connections. Never glop dielectric grease on any grounds or battery terminals 'before' tightening them, always after they are tightened. I prefer to cover the tightened grounding lugs with an electrical sealer called "Glyptol' and avoid grease altogether. The idea is to keep moisture out and preserve a low resistance purely metallic contact. BTW: anti-sieze is a fairly good conductor, especially the copper-based stuff.

Mello

My 85.5 had an issue with the wipers and blower cutting out together. It was a bad connection at one of the relays. I don't remember which one exactly, but it was a tall one right in the middle of the fuse box. Whenever the blower and wipers would cut out, I would wiggle it and it would come back on.

Mello

I'm pretty sure the windows were also connected to that same relay I just mentioned. I guess thats the load reduction relay 951North mentioned. The headlights/blinkers could also be affected by this relay.

Yabo

hm.. any idea which relay that is exactly?

The tow truck left teh car out front whil ei was sleeping, what a nightmare that whole situation was, it took 5 hours for a tow truck to get the car.

I just noticed that I'm getting no click at the second position of the key from the relay box.. I seem to remember there being an audible relay click at the first position, and then at the second. I'm not getting one at the second right now.

Anyone know which ignition relay is which? There is an ignition relay and an ignition relay X.

Iceshark's instructions i'm pretty sure said dielectric grease the grounds prior to connection.. that's wrong? i probably just made my situation worse with all that work i guess then.

Mello

I just remember it was one of the taller relays. It was in one of the two rows of relays closest to the drivers fender.

yellowline

Really a shame I don't know how to use my dad's multimeter and other testers. He'd also probably blow a fuse, pun intended, if he had to troubleshoot 2 misbehaving 944s.

Mr. Electricity thought ignition switch when I explained the problem. Maybe it'll solve most of your trouble.

Hallopt45

Yes, check the power relay.

If you replace it with another and all is good...

If all is still bad. Then I hate to say it, but a cold solder joint may very well be the issue. I can go over it for you if you would like to send it to me. I repair ECUs at the component level, diagnose problems, and even chase down the impossible to find ECU for people all the time.

I will not rake you over the coles either.

Randy Hall
rhall@upsolute.com

Yabo

Turns out it was the black power wire from the ignition switch to the alarm module over by the DME. Right behind the ignition switch there was a previous repair of the wire that came apart. All good for now... Still don't have my lights working perfect but hey it's a work in progress.

Jason_86_951

Sounds like what could be some contact corrosion, which can be a tricky little bitch.

Pull ALL the relays and clean up the contact surfaces with an eraser, or a scotch pad. When you plug them back in, do it 3 or 4 times, this will help a little with the socket itself. As you do each one, feel for any extra play that seems out of sorts compared to the rest. If you find a loose one, do some creative poking and proding with the contact points untill it's tight again.

This may or may not help, but it's a quick and easy way to rule out the simple stuff first.

Good luck,
Jason