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    Electrical gremlins

    So I was getting my car ready for its maiden voyage (excluding two trips around the block and a drive to the inspection station a mile away) yesterday and I was reinstalling my alternator and power steering pump in the rain. It was extremely dumb of me to be doing electrical work in the rain and on top of that my battery was reconnected. I never do this but I was in an extreme hurry and forgot. I get everything installed and get in the car to drive off. Many things are haywire and I'll list the electrical problems.

    The left indicator switch doesn't turn on any of the front signals, only the back at a rapid pace. It also causes my speedometer to bounce and the cruise light to flicker if I do it while driving.
    My cruise control does not work and it also causes the speedometer to bounce when the button is pressed.
    My wipers have a mind of their own when the switch is turned. When they're on the intermittent setting their movement is not fluid and is very notchy and irregular. When I turn the switch off it takes them a while to actually turn off. It may be three more passes or ten.
    My hazard button works all of the lights except the front left but it also triggers the wipers and their slough of issues.

    The car worked amazingly before this. I bought it non-running but was still able to test all of these features before and after I replaced the engine. Whatever I did yesterday in the rain has caused the issues. My only course of action so far has been to replace the A02 module with an A11 module I had lying around. This did nothing. I've checked the connectors in that front left vicinity and everything seems to be fine. All grounds are intact as well. If anyone has any suggestions that would be fantastic. The car drives okay but these issues should be fixed sooner rather than later. Thanks a lot.
    My Members' Ride Thread - It's a marathon build, not a sprint. But keep me honest on the update frequency!

    #2
    All dash fuses were still good. I guess my course of action now is to try a different combination switch.
    My Members' Ride Thread - It's a marathon build, not a sprint. But keep me honest on the update frequency!

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      #3




      If I were to take a stab at it, (after staring at the electrical diagrams for the last 15+ minutes), I would say its the Dash F/B Ground. Trace that bad boy, and I would pull out your trusty multimeter and start checking resistance and/or current draw.

      Semi-
      Trust me, water, or any liquid for that matter can cause all sorts of bob saget! (Trying to cut back on profanity now that I have a son [the reason I didn't respond sooner]) When I had the headgasket problem on my cb, I spilled some coolant by accident on one of the grounds in engine bay, and my car refused to start. It was like 100*F out, middle of summer, outside of a ghetto mart, in not one of the best parts of town. Thankfully, the heat dried it out quick, and the issue stopped.

      I kinda felt like this:
      Last edited by cloudasc; 06-17-2012, 07:48 AM.
      PT3/6 Development Thread | My 1991 LX Coupe | DIY: 90-93 Tcu Fix

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        #4
        Check the ground junction behind the washer fill at the front left corner.

        It grounds the wiper motor, left front markers, left front turn signal, cc actuator, washer solenoid, left headlight, ps switch, and brake level switch.

        Also did you put the ground back on the power steering pump?
        Manual Belt Conversion-Variable Intermittent Wipers-Steering Volume Controls-Rear Defroster Antenna-JDM Climate Control-MDX Steering Wheel-Lighted Mirror Switch-CL Trunk Solenoid-CL Homelink-Shaved Hood Squirters-Foglight Wiring Diagram-Door Panel Removal-Puddle Lights-Ambient Lighting-Door Speaker Install-Window Seal and Regulator Cleaning-Prelude Cluster-Mirror Tweeter Pods-Illuminated Window Switch -More Coming Soon

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          #5
          I checked out all of the grounds back when y'all responded but I'm just now reporting back. I found no issues with any of my grounds for as much of the wiring that I can actually see. I checked all of the grounds near the dash fuse box and the ones behind the washer filler neck. Also, all grounds are intact between the valve cover, power steering bracket and engine mount bracket. I'm honestly at a loss. I loaned out my Fluke a few years ago and without going into details I'll never see it again so I don't have a multimeter. Does it sound like I have damage within a particular component or that it's damaged wiring within a look somewhere?

          In the interest of being as thorough as possible I'm also having electrical issues with ABS. After about 20 seconds of driving my amber ABS light will come on. Also, not every time, but often my door/trunk indicators and third brake light indicator all come on and stay solid. I think most of this may have something to do with relocating the ABS brain when I put the wagon trunk compartment in. I didn't reside anything at all but simply drilled holes higher up and reinstalled it. I don't know what I could have done unless the water leaking had upset something.

          Yes, I know I'm a mess.
          Last edited by Jarrett; 07-04-2012, 01:38 PM.
          My Members' Ride Thread - It's a marathon build, not a sprint. But keep me honest on the update frequency!

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            #6
            I know that everyone is getting annoyed at these because they don't have anything to do with being stanced or how JDM my ride is but bear with me. An interesting development happened today. I had to replace my three month old battery today with a new one. I initially had the mid-grade model from O'Reilly and now I have the premium one. I know that my car was acting the same for some period after the battery but eventually it just stopped and behaved properly. I was turning left and the signal was blinking at its normal rate. However, during the course of the trip it wavered back and forth between working and then back to the previously described conditions. Something interesting is that even when it did seem to be working, cruise control would not. The light on the switch would come on but I could never get it to activate. The time I ended up pulling in the driveway happened to be a point in time that car was cooperating. So when I parked I flipped the left signal and got out to look. I had a working signal inside the bumper light, but not in the corner light. So, between that and the cruise control it seems that even when it's "working" it's not really working. Does that help anyone out who may have been interested in brainstorming?
            My Members' Ride Thread - It's a marathon build, not a sprint. But keep me honest on the update frequency!

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              #8
              That's true. Since its mostly behaving now I could see if it does away with the lingering cruise and corner light issues. Thanks a lot.
              My Members' Ride Thread - It's a marathon build, not a sprint. But keep me honest on the update frequency!

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                #9
                Could it possibly be that you are getting too much current from your alternator? or maybe a bad alternator? make sure all grounds are hooked up because i had a similar problem with my CB and it would not start due to shitty grounds.

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                  #10
                  What were the results of the temporary ground?

                  I've been having a similar gremlin that doesn't show it's head very often. My ABS and 3rd brake light decide out of the blue to malfunction. I have been shaking and moving my harness around and cannot locate the disconnect. I'm about to wire brush and dielectric grease all of my grounds and connectors on the related harnesses.

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