wds928

Ok, all you electrical gurus.

Just got my hood light working. Nothing at all about this in the manuals. My understanding was that the hood light only worked when the hood is raised AND the marker lights or head lights are turned on.

My hood light goes on when hood is raised, whether the headlights are on or not. Is this correct?

Second question. With the hood raised, are the cooling fans supposed to turn off?? I was testing this with the key turned on (but not started) and pressed the A/C button to on and the fans turn on like they are supposed to. I understood and have read in other posts that when the hood is raised, the fans turn off as a safety feature.

I replaced two relays this evening, the fuel pump and the a/c fan/blower relay, which have been problematic. The a/c fan/blower relay works great now and hopefully the fuel pump relay will also (intermittent stalling, hard to start problems) Using Wally P's advice, I pulled and reinserted each and every fuse 3 times, plus the relays once each. These steps plus the ground wire cleanup last month should get rid of the electrical gremlins.

Now, if I can figure out why the A/C ompressor is not getting any power.....

SharkSkin

Wally P.'s advice about the fuses is not necessarily a fix, IMHO. If everything looks clean, and doing this fixed it, you'll probably be OK for a while. But if you see any signs of corrosion, then what you really need to do is get all of the oxidation and crud out, because it will spread with any dampness.

This will be more difficult with the blade type fuse holders, but probably doable on a Saturday. I haven't had a later MY fuse panel out of the car looking closely at it, but I don't imagine it's more than an extra hour or so work compared to this.

BTW there is a compressor clutch relay in the guts of the console that could be the culprit, but check other relays and fuses first.

shaaark89

your hood light is functioning normally. when the light position was changed in '91, the functioning was changed so the light comes on when the hood is opened regardless of the headlight/marker light status.
as far as the cooling fans go, my understanding is that when the a/c is on or the motor is running, the fans will continue to run if the hood is open. if the ignition is off and the fans are running secondary to input from the intake temp sensor (top rear of the intake), they will stop if the hood is opened.
agree on the a/c compressor that most likely the relay in the head has gone south, but there are other points along the way that may be the culprit.

wds928

Dave, thanks for the info. Great website and pics of what you have done. My car isn't that old and I don't think my electric panel is too corroded. But once you have done it and done it correctly as you have, then you know it and don't have to worry about that for a long while. I had not heard of Stabilant before. I was using dielectric grease on the ground points, but used nothing on the fuses or relays.

Tom, thanks for the info on the very late model cars. I kept reading posts about the hood light and such and was wondering what sort of electrical gremlin I had. Great to know the car is wired ok.

I will tackle the A/C problems this weekend. Hope it's not the relay in the head unit. Where are you located in Virginia? I am in Charlottesville.

shaaark89

bill,
i'm in fredericksburg.
if the relay in the head unit is bad, there is a way to fix it with an external relay that is more robust. dr bob has this written up somewhere.
i do have an extra head if you need to test one.

SharkSkin

Actually, dielectric grease is not a good thing to use in that application. It probably won't kill anything, it's just not ideal. I'd recommend cleaning the grounds of all dielectric(insulating) grease and putting them together one of 2 ways:

1) Assemble dry, then coat with grease afterward to prevent corrosion if desired.

2) Assemble with conductive grease or other material.