Official wierdest electrical gremlin thread
 

Hi Sharksters,
Perhaps Im not the only one with a wierd unexplainable electrical gremlin, so reaching out to others that think they can top this one.

Ive got a headlight "Winker" gremlin.
Whenever I have my headlights up, and I turn on the rear window defroster - my headlights start to go up and down!

The only way to stop this is to turn off the ignition! Any ideas?

Who's got another gremlin?

I would say that you have a bad ground point under the dash pod, or by the CE panel.

Pressed the cigarette lighter and blower came on full power......PO bodge job!

Wow, that is wierd!! Now it doesn't sound so bad that my Tachometer goes dead when i turn my high beams on.

The warning lights came on on start up, system didnt charge until i went over 2700 rpm then all was well. If you didnt rev the engine at start up it would die electrically due to no battery and charging power. Never did fix the issue, but that car is now dead and buried and the Hobert car doesnt have any gremlins, as it doesnt have any electrical stuff, that hasnt been isolated and replaced for racing.

mk

You might inspect the wiring harness that passes just under the hoodline on the right.

Mine had a few burn marks, so I split the harness plastic open. Had headlight wire that had completely burned-off its insulation -- bare wire --- and was affecting other wires here and there with partial burn-throughs.

Looks like some of the wires, for instance the headlight current-carriers, should have been much thicker gage from the factory. If that's true, and I've seen references to it elsewhere as well, then the design standards are questionable and it could happen other places

I'm now carefully checking my various wiring harnesss for traces of burns made by wires burning off their individual insulations within.

My car would start and run for a half block, then die. The only way to restart it was to get out, open and then slam the hatch shut at which point the horn would honk once, then the car would restart and be able to drive until the iginition was turned off. When it came time to restart it, I'd have to go throught the same procedure. It turned out to be a fault with the factory alarm. I had the alarm disabled and never had the problem again.

I had a condition where while driving the head lights would pop part way up and then go down, sometimes several times and then stop. All this with the head lights off. It seemed to be related to having used the turn signal which was not always working correctly either.

I replaced the control module that includes the turn signal, high beam, wipers, and cruise control and the problem disappeared. The old module did have what appeared to be bad pins under the one connector. Best I can determine the high beam switch was being activated through the defective module causing the lights to pop up momentarily before the high beam signal was lost and they would go back down.

Yep, same deal here.
My wife once drove the OB to work and then took a colleague out to lunch. After lunch, no starty.
So she phones me, quite frustrated, and asks me what to do.
So I tell her to get out of the car, pop the back hatch, close it, and then try starting the car again.
Man did I look like a bad-ass when it roared to life. The old Fonzarelli magic touch.
Or so it was in my mind...

Alright, I have one you've probably never seen before:

Years ago with my former GT, one day I noticed the Blaupunkt Reno radio FM tuning was off by -1.1mhz (IIRC), i.e. to get 107.7 I had to tune to 106.6. Stayed this way until I sold it, and for all I know it's still this way to this day. Probably a Blaupunkt issue rather than a 928 problem, but I've never seen anything like it. :confused:

BTW-At the time, I mentioned it to DR and he had never heard of this happening either.

That is no exageration. I had suffered an electrical fire on the way to Florida once just leaving LA for Florida. I had stopped by the side of the road and left the car for a moment with the engine running. When I returned, I saw smoke from the AC vents and the electrical system went crazy. When I stopped for the night, I decided to tow the car to a shop in Tampa where it was temporaril made driveable for the trip back to Califonia but without AC. When I returned, Devek tore the dash off and found a cluster of wires all melted together in a bunch. They spliced in what they could and almost solved most of the problems, but not all wires were found and three years later, I still have to disconnect the battery every night to keep it alive. What caused my fire was the wires rubbing against the firewall where the grommet had fallen out and it took all the way from California before they all melted together.

I just live with the gremlin now. I am tired of chasing it.

ok, mine: 1988 s4, digital clock and dash lights go off when the turn signal is on. ...hmmm....
It was a bad fuse. Don't remeber which one. Nothing obvious.
Theo

Twice while passing, I flipped on headlights and the car shut off!!!

working on a local 928 that hadnt been started in two years, found that the 3 pin connector for the rpm sensor was not fully plugged in, so it was making intermitant connection, enough for me to confirm resistance, but as soon as the engine moved from cranking it lost it. It also had a poorly installed aftermarket alarm which I removed.

on my 81 928, I tore everything out, put in an 86.5 wiring harness (complete) engine, brakes, etc. However the car would start but not run properly, and would die if I gave it any fuel, tried other brains, tested continuity of all wiring. Turned out to be a fault with the tach, unplugged the instrument cluster and car ran like a top.

I drove to California and back with ammeter at <12 and the "!" glowing at me very dimly whenever I had the lights on. Through two nights each way. After the first night, not having been stranded, I relaxed and went with the flow.