A bit of an issue in short story form

[Xodi-SVX]

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.

[Earthworm]

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?

[ensteele]

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

[Xodi-SVX]

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

[UberRoo]

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.

[oab_au]

I reckon you need a fuse in the AC slot.

Harvey,

[TomsSVX]

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