1994-2002 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
OK, I have a 1997 Saab 900S automatic with about 122k miles on the clock. This problem has me stumped. It started in the summer where if I turned on the heated seats the: windshield wipers, electric windows, ventilation fan, directional indicators, cruise control and rear defrosters fail. They just stop functioning. If I turn off the seat heaters and those components listed above (those which were turned on at time), they all come back after a few minutes (immediately comes back if I shut the car off and restart it), except for the cruise control. The cruise control can come back in 15 minutes to a few days. Even that coming back seems to be influenced by me, if I push on the brakes the cruise light comes back on, though when i set the speed to use it, it fails again. So I replaced the battery and this seemed to solve the problem for about a month. Once that month was up the problem showed back up. If I had the seat heater switch turned from a prior trip and start the car all the items listed would be inoperable right from the start, and follows the same reoperational time above. Now its become much worse. I was driving the other night in heavy rain with only the ventilation fan and wipers on and midstroke the wipers and fan failed, shut the vent fan and wipers off and a few minutes later they came back. Then tonight while driving home again in the rain with the wipers, vent fan and rear defrost on I lost it all again, along with all the dash lights and all the exterior lights (including headlights, that was fun in the dark. So again shut off the wipers, vent fan and rear defrost and everything came back again, thankfully, engine performance was NOT effected by this electrical failure, radio was uneffected too. I'm at a loss to figure out what is going on.
So in summary:
1.) I lose power to certain bits of electronics when I put a load on the electric system.
2.) Resets itself after a few minutes once all switches to components are shut off, or if I restart the car.
3.) Problem growing.
4.) All relays and fuses are seated properly.
They only common electrical grounding point I could find is a point behind the battery mount and to the transmission. I did a quick cleaning of the transmission grounding point, but will try to clean it better tomorrow, and I reseated all the relays I could find under the hood. Does anyone have an idea that doesn't involve paying the stealership? Does this sound like the death of the ICE (integrated central electronics) unit? I did read a TSB for the 94 where the ignition switch's electical contact does quite rotate all the way to the full power position, and requires lubricating, but that was for a 94, and their is no mention of that TSB for the 97, plus the radio keeps function properly. Any help would be very appreciated. Thanks!
posted by 151.203.116...
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