My ’82 didn’t have a drain but some things would work intermittently.

Then one day it wouldn’t start and I quickly determined that the fuel pump wasn’t running. It turned out to be the fuse.

The fuse wasn’t blown but had a buildup of oxidation that looked almost like ceramic. It felt like ceramic too and was quite difficult to remove.

At the time I was unaware of Deoxit, et al, and just used fine abrasive paper.

Most of the fuses had this buildup to some extent or another. Many of them had a barely visible ring of conductor showing. The rest was certainly well insulated by this oxide coating.

I just cleaned things in place but with what I know now, I would have, and will soon, removed the entire panel, which is what you should do.

Again, this is probably not your problem but will be in the not too distant future if not addressed. Look closely at the circled areas of your panel; it looks to be starting to oxidize.

Has anyone else seen this “ceramic like oxidation” on bullet type fuses?

 

I will take care of the panel as soon as I can. I am dropping the car off to have the alternator sorted today.

 

be careful adding fuses that are not speced to the year of the car your working on
they will create other issues and its possible to damage componenets as other circuits will be back powered, seen this a few times where different things wouldnt work IE windows, defrosters and cruise controls, also possibly a few burned out HVAC heads

 

Incorrect.

To test the door end light - leave a door open and tape closed (or hold in) the pin switch 'pin' - Its really easy.

If the red door end light does not go off after 20 seconds this is your problem. Fix the interior lights so they work in door switched mode ( the center position) the other positions are irrelvant to this issue.

Alan

 

No you are incorrect. His year is 1982, like mine. There is no delayed time on any of the lights. The center position turns the door interior light OFF. The red light still gets the current from the same circuit as the UPPER position of the door light. LOWER position keeps those door lights on continuously.

 

NO!

It is not in series - it is in parallel - IT IS ALWAYS SWITCHED BY THE DOOR...

The diagram you posted shows this clearly - the switch in the light fixture does nothing WRT the door end light.

It will always be on when the door is open if the pin switch works properly - it should always be off when the door is closed (after a delay on models with delay relays). Since this is a safety light it would be stupid for the user to be able to turn it off (or on) while operating a functionally completely differently lamp...

You are correct early year cars have no delay relay - however I described a procedure which will work to evaluate for this issue on any year 928 from '78 - '95. And of course it is technically correct - if after 20 seconds the light hasn't gone out you certainly do have a problem - if it goes out sooner then its just a quicker test.

Alan

 

I was thinking off hand when I said was series when in fact it is parallel, you are correct. However I never said that red light turns on and off by the switch on the door panel. It shouldn't matter which position the door switch is in to test the red light as they are independent and the door switch just grounds itself (or ungrounds) based on the position of the switch. A test of the door switch is easy

Thus it is important which position the door switch position is in during draw tests as a ground in the circuit THE DOOR switch may intermittently cause the light to TURN ON rather fully or dimly.

You started in about the red light. I merely mentioned the interior lights

That's what I was suggesting to when I asked the owner to check those lights.

 

Yes - I 'm glad we agree. Actually you said : ...So I was pointing out this was incorrect because it totally changes how you might debug this...

Yes - thats what I said

Yes - thats what I was pointing out - no periscope is needed for this - do it the easy way.

There is no normal mechanism for "dimly illuminating" and the OP already told us that all but the red door end lights were off.

I have no axe to grind with you - I just point out when erroneous statements might lead to difficulty to figure out whats really going on -
and what you said was likely to mislead in this and possibly other cases.

Keeping it straight...

Alan

 

I checked this car out when it was on ebay because it was local(still toying with the idea of getting another). If your not happy now...its probably only gonna get worse. I thought the brakes were very very weak, and compared to my s4 it had no power..seller didn't want to hear any of it.... For a car that was more than 25+years it was in ok shape but needed ALLOT of work...that and the speedo went out during test drive so never thought seriously about a bid.... A PPI can be setup anywhere from anywhere it just takes some research

 

OP stated the PASSENGER door light worked, that's when I asked questions about intermittent lights...I had that problem in my 82 and fixed it, that's why I asked for full light position test, never had any problems with the red light..it's an old car

much older than your..

 

He doesnt want to hear any of it from me either.

Wrote him today a letter about the condition of the car, he replied by basically blowing me off. As we mentioned in previous posts he probably would do. Seems he's well schooled on ebay car policies and knew that they wouldnt do anything.

Time for plan B.

The car is currently at a porsche specialist down the street. I have some good suggestions from other members via PM on where to take it, but I cant get it that far with it at the moment and this guy is a mile a way from me. The owner used to own a 928 so that at least gave me some hope. He has agreed to give me a full once over and let me know everything that needs doing on the car. Dunno if any locals know Intersport in McLean.

I plan to get a second once over at another shop in case I need two mechanics corroborating the same thing.

 

If you are able to do a search of the forum, you will see many references to Intersport.

 

I see that now... thanks. Looks like they are pretty well regarded.

If anyone wants to take a peek at the car, pop by their shop

 

idf, defer to Alan.

 

Don't leave the seller negative feedback, they can have that removed, leave neutral with some details.