Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2000 13:44:17 GMT From: Fred E. Davis <FEDavisnopsamdnet.att.net> Subject: Intermittent Electrical Problem on '89 900
I've been struggling with finding an intermittent electrical problem in my daughter's '89 900S. I'm hopeful that someone in this group has had similar experiences (and solutions!) that they can share. The car either runs great or not at all. When the car 'dies' the engine speed drops to near zero, it bucks & struggles to run then dies, and refuses to immediately restart. Some "interesting" symptoms appear when it fails which leads me to believe there is an intermittent grounding problem, probably in the instrument cluster and dash. Sometimes, the rear window defroster comes on by itself when the car seems to be running 'normally'. When the engine dies and won't restart, the high beam indicator on the dash (as well as most all of the other idiot lights) glows dimly [note that the headlights were turned off at the time]. Once, when cranking it after it had failed, the high beam indicator was on while the engine wouldn't start, then suddenly went out and the engine started and ran without a problem. This leads me to believe that the ground point in the dash for the instrument cluster is intermittent and floats. When it floats, the return path could be through the high beam indicator to the headlamps to ground. I have examined all of the ground points in the engine compartment (as well as the wiring in the fuse box), and they all look fine. Before I rip the dash board out, has anyone else had a similar experience, and what solutions did you find? TIA
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