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mult electrical gremlins: headlights, edu, alternator? Posted by John Fitzgerald [Email]  (#77)  [Profile/Gallery]
(more from John Fitzgerald) on Fri, 12 Sep 2003 22:00:27
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97 CSE turbo w/ 138k mi. About two weeks ago, when turning on the headlights, sometimes the edu would blank out, all the gauges drop to 0, and the engine would stall. Voltmeter had been reading 13.4 to 13.8, battery was in decent shape (had it out and charged fully three months ago, no starting problems volts showing about 10.8 to 11.3 after start). No battery light coming on during these intermittant episodes; cycling the headlights 'off' restored everything. Seemed to happen (at first) more often when the engine was cold, worked fine when warmed up.
Searched the archives. Had previous high beam problems w/ a 97 Aero, so I resoldered the posts inside the main headlight relay. Worked fine for a few days.
Car wouldn't start this morning with the headlights 'on'. Started ok w/ them off, turning them on made everything die, including the engine. Pulled the battery, cleaned ALL the grounds and power connections, including the alternator power cable and extra grounds (above upper motor mount, inside battery box, alongside relay box drivers side fender, etc) and swapped in a fully charged battery while recharging the old one. Car starts fine with headlights off, but now VR edu output is only 12.3 to 12.8.
Revved engine to see if edu reading would fluctuate; seemed to tolerate turning on the headlights only if other electrics were off (radio, ACC) otherwise edu would blank and engine die when lights were turned on. Still no battery icon (although when the edu blanked, ALL the display lights went out, too). Did a few of these troubleshooting restarts (four or five times, perhaps) and now the engine will turn over but not fire. Edu stays blank, all the gauges stay dark/off, although external meter shows battery at 12.5 v. Still have interior dome lights, can hear the cabin temp sensor fan etc but edu and dash are blank.
Tried recharging the battery, swapping the original (now charged) battery back in = no luck.
Have I fried a relay? I checked all the fuses for Edu/ clock/ engine management ... anything remotely related. All fine. Did a diode go in the alternator? Why didn't I get a battery light during the last couple of weeks, as electrical loads became too much? Why the 'sudden death' syndrome of dark panel (not a standard feature -- just kidding) wihtout other electrical indicators (VR output, etc). I presume somehow Trionic went below min volts at the same time, thus the rough running/ stall.
Ideas? Rather than a VR, I'm probably going to put in a rebuilt alternator -- bought the car last spring and it's probably the original (no records).
Recent work prior to the problem: replaced the fuel pump a few weeks ago, plugs a few months ago. Use 93 octane, new NGK 7ES plugs correctly gapped, and a recently cleaned out intake manifold/throttle body.
posted by 63.191.1...
_______________________________________ John Burlington, Wisc '73 96 RHD sold after four years in Middle Barton, Oxfordshire, UK '80 99 bought new, sold after 20 years/192,000mi '86 9kT picked up at Trollhatten, sold after 12 years/approx 121,000 mi '87 9kT sold after 9 years/approx 174,000 mi '94 CSE given to my son after 8 years @ 245k; he sold it at 254k mi '95 Aero 146,xxx mi sold '98 CSE 248,xxx mi gave it away '97 Aero 317,xxx mi my daughter’s school car … gave away [we put 300k mi on it] still driving: '97 CSE 170xxx mi 'project car' for myself and my daughters to drive '07 9-3 2.0T 240xxx '08 9-5 191xxx mi my wife's daily driver and a couple of 'non-Saabs': '01 Suburban 201,xxx mi '03 BMW 330 Cic 84,xxx mi '14 Mercedes E350 103,xxx mi
, Fri, 12 Sep 2003 22:00:27 <-- Viewing This Message, Sun, 14 Sep 2003 13:40:36, Sun, 14 Sep 2003 13:00:14
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