A bit of an issue in short story form
 

Well, it has been a while, but I'm back again. And guess what that means? Yes, it is story time!

So I'm going down Highway 17 to get home from working at the CVS/Pharmacy. I'm on the way to Winnabow, NC from Wilmington, NC. Not a bad ride, a 40 minute cruise or so, but all and all, not a bad ride. Its a fifty-five mile an hour zone, but I'm doing about sixty-five. Thats the rate of travel on these back country roads, and yes, 17 is a back country road this far out from the city.

At any rate, I'm easing along, talking to some crazy ex-girlfriend I used to have back in high-school with my cell phone plugged into the cigarette lighter. I keep noticing that the phone is losing connectivity to the charger, so I keep pushing the car charger back into the little hole. Five minutes or so later, I'm spinning the thing around pushing it in, when all the sudden I notice that no matter how I put it in, it just isn't working! (And, no, I do not have this problem elsewhere -cough-). The cell phone eventually dies, thank God for small favors, but I notice something else that is odd. My windows were down and the vent was blowing outside air in, but once I put my windows up, I didn't feel any air. So, I said to myself, "Well, self, this isn't good. The vent isn't working!" So, I start finagling my way around, pushing random odd assortments of buttons to no avail. Disheartened that my AC isn't going to work anymore, I notice something else. My clock is dead! And so is my headunit!

Well, I started to press buttons on the head unit and it came back up, so I decided to try this little trick with the panel for the AC/Heat/Vent/Defroster/etc (which we will now call the Control Panel, because it sounds cool!). The radio is working, schwing, but the control panel isn't. Neither is the clock. Neither is the car charger, nor the cigarette lighter. When I got home, I started pulling and testing fuses, but I could find nothing wrong with them.

Am I looking in the wrong place? I went through every single fuse under the hood, but nothing looked to be blown. I did notice that I didn't have fuses in a spot that said (FWD), nor did I have one where it said A/C. I decided to leave well enough alone and not put fuses there, but at any rate, the Control Panel isn't working anymore!

This wouldn't be too much of an issue, but the drive to work and back without AC is hellacious at best. It is just a tad short of 100 degrees near the beach where I work at.. (God I love working in a Photo Lab in a beach/college town. Definite perks.).

The good thing, though, in all of this, I found a Subaru XT-6 in the parking lot. The car owner has a similar issue. I have company in my misery, at least.

If any of you know what the issue might be, or if any of you have any suggestions upon how to fix this, I'd appreciate it. I have already replaced the fuse for clock, which had blown earlier when my head unit pulled just a few too many amps (I guess). That time, the clock went out and so did the radio. This time, the radio works, the clock does not, and neither does the super nifty control panel of keeping Jason from sweating like a pig.

Thanks in advance, and if you don't have any suggestions, I hope this was at least an interesting read. Sure, not as good as the story about eating at Theo's when my car got hit, but hey. It still works.

Nice story. So in general your radio works but not your clock, lighter or AC?

How's your charging system? How about the sunvisor wires? What about the little fusable link for the lighter?

And there should not be a fuse in the FWD slot. That makes it FWD only. :)

Yeah, my radio works (aftermarket Alpine CDA-9813), the clock, lighter, and AC is dead (AC/Heat/Vent/Defroster, the whole panel does nothing when a button is pushed). The sunvisor motor is kind of weak, I haven't even tried to operate it since the last time I had to push the thing shut. I haven't pulled my dash apart to check the fusable link for the lighter, would that be an issue that'd cause the AC to die? I love my little clock, but I can live without it as long as the AC works. Even the vent would help out, I'm dying out here!

edit -- just re-read that. The sun visors, both of them, the lights are not working. The sunroof is the one with the bum motor. Sorry for the confusion

Sounds like the high-current items are having trouble. That would generally mean you aren't getting enough power, which is probably a loose connection. Try turning on everything all at once. Things like the wiper motors, blower fan, headlights, heated mirrors, and especially the rear defrost draw a lot of power. Crank up the stereo and then turn all those things on and see what happens. If my theory is correct, the more stuff you turn on, the more things will stop working that were working before you turned on everything else. If the stereo cuts out, I'd say you definitely have a current flow problem.

Best bet: Loose ground wire. It could be anywhere, but the first place to check is the battery terminals, and then the chassis connection. This problem can also cook your alternator and possibly your battery. It's probably not a battery problem because a battery that far gone usually won't start the car. Surprisingly, even with a bad ground, the car will start, but certain things won't work.

Electrical gremlins.
 

I reckon you need a fuse in the AC slot.

Harvey, ;)

the fusable link is in the Fuse box under the hood. There is a second fuse box in the cabin under the dash on the driver's side. Check the fuses related to all of these. Infact just replace all of them. I have had fuses look and test well but they were still shot. Good luck and I agree with Harvey, put a fuse in the A/C slot

Tom

Alright, going out today.. Another day in the blistering heat. I'm going to try the suggestion of turning everything on and see if something else goes out. Hopefully it doesn't, but that would shed some more light onto the problem.

Fuse in the A/C slot, sounds easy, but doesn't fix the problem. There never was one there to begin with, and it has always worked fine. I put one there just for haha's, no avail. Sad :(

At any rate, wish me luck, my fellow SVX-goons, for I am making the 100 degree drive in a black car on black leather. Hey, one good thing, though.. I'm saving mileage by not running the AC, and I'm losing weight by sitting in a suana all day. I guess this might not be THAT bad.. :D

Actually, the drag from opening the widows will negate the fuel savings. Funny how a car as slippery as an SVX really gets the best mileage with the windows up, even with the ac on. At least that is what the aero engineers say. Weight savings, now that is a another matter.

Shh, way to burst my bubble :(

At any rate, tried turning everything on and up.. Nothing else died. The fuseable link is fine, and I'm getting to the point that I'm about to pull and replace every fuse under the hood and under the dash. Hopefully that'll fix it, but with my luck, probably not. I dread having to go to the dealership, but if I take it anywhere, I'll stay in Atlanta and go see Porter again and see if he has any ideas. That and its been a while since I've seen 'em, so eh.

I guess Subaru of Duluth's tag line, "It was worth the drive!", is about to be tested.

That may be what the computer models say, but the Mythbusters seem to have some some disagreements with that conclusion. Anyone else here seen the Boom Lift Catapult episode? They tested this "myth" using a couple of Ford Expeditions which are definitely not as slippery as the SVX and ended up with the opposite result, though they weren't in real life stop & go traffic. On 5 gallons of gas, the naturally aspirated SUV went about 30 miles further than the one with AC running. I can't say for sure that the SVX wouldn't do the same, but I wouldn't be so quick to discount it without testing.

KuoH

I recall my first SVX, a '92 in '92. Whenever the bra was i place it consistently cost me 1.5 mpg.

Side note: I had a 30' motorhome when I lived in Colorado. In the mountains it would go ~12-13 mpg (what goes up must come down, so the mountains had little effect on mileage other than air density.) In Missouri it would only return 7-8 mpg.

i had the same problem last week, took my a while to figure out it was the 20A 'cigar' fuse under the steering whell on the side??
mayber same problem?

Couple of things:
1) They didn't use SVX's
2) They couldn't be 100% sure about the exact amount left in the tank, even though they syphoned out everything they could
3) The two guys drove differently! Different lines around the track, one guy cornered harder...
4) as you said, it wasn't in normal driving conditions.

I would like to think that in traffic, the windows down is the go, and at cruising speed, your A/C is the best option. As for where the fine line of equality falls it depends on:
The temperature, and the efficiency of the A/C system
How you drive
The direction the wind blows (!)
and a couple of other sundries as well.

But, my father and I have our own SVX's and we often find I get better fuel economy, even though I'm a leadfoot, and run the A/C 24/7. Probably because I re-gassed mine not so long ago and it doesn't have to work its' tits off to keep the car cool :D

Aerodynamically, the SVX would do better on point 1. I had the same reservations about point 2, they should've ran both till the engines died, then refilled with a measured amount of gas. Still, a difference of nearly 30 miles would mean something like 2-3 gallons of difference, and I wouldn't think that they'd be off by that much. As for point 3, I didn't get that impression since the speeds were supposed to be the same, ideally by using the cruise control. One would have to be on the extreme inside and the other on the extreme outside of the track for the entire duration to make that much difference. Lastly in normal city driving conditions, especially in stop & go, you will definitely lose more mileage with AC since the car isn't usually travelling fast enough for the air resistance to make as much of a difference. Highway driving might narrow the margin more.

Take it with a grain of salt, but I usually drive my 92 without AC on, and usually got better city and highway mileage than a friend with a 93 who always uses the AC, and I have at least an extra 30 lbs on him as well as 50+ lbs of speaker and assorted tools in the trunk. Like I said, I wouldn't so readily dismiss the possibility of the SVX getting better mileage with windows down and AC off, but it definitely is less comfortable in some climates.

KuoH

[QUOTE=McTaff]Couple of things:
1) They didn't use SVX's
2) They couldn't be 100% sure about the exact amount left in the tank, even though they syphoned out everything they could
3) The two guys drove differently! Different lines around the track, one guy cornered harder...
4) as you said, it wasn't in normal driving conditions.