RX7_Nick

Going into winter I've had a couple random electrical issues crop up, I'm not sure if they're seperate problems or all tied together. The car is a 1991 convertible, it has been great with the occasional issue here and there, haha.

Right now I'm having issues with my right headlight, passenger door lock, driver's side seatbelt sensor, and alarm.

Some time ago the right headlight wouldn't pop up mechanically anymore, I'd have to pull it up and push it down manually, however when I pushed it, I could never push it all the way down or all the way up- it was always just ever so slightly off. I took it to a shop and they tightened a bolt for like $3, lol, but it still didn't totally fix the problem. It now pops up with the left headlight, but it's not aligned right. When the headlights are down, the right light is slightly raised, it's not flush with the car like the left one is. When I go to raise them, the left one raises up fine, but the right light first goes down to make itself flush, and then raises, but it doesn't raise all the way up, it stays slightly lower than the left light. And then when turning them off, the right light comes up the rest of the way, and then goes back down, again, slightly raised. It's not that noticeable, just noticeable enough to be annoying. Any ideas here?

My passenger door lock will not lock manually anymore. The lock on the inside of the door always stays down, and it's very loose. I can lock the car fine with the automatic locks, but the manual lock on the passenger door has no effect at all. I believe this started when someone tried to open the door as I was unlocking it manually.

The last issues I believe are tied together, as they started happening at the same time, however I'm not sure what caused this. When I turn the car on, the seatbelt light will flash, and the seatbelt alarm will sound... and beep, and beep, and beep... and continue beeping... until I buckle the belt. However, once it's buckled, the seatbelt light will keep flashing. I believe it only used to give me 3 series of two beeps, and then shut off... now it's just bloody annoying. After some time I just unplugged the seatbelt wire, now the beeping has stopped, but the light always flashes. Along with this, whenever I arm the alarm on the car, it also gives a persistant beeping, when before this problem occured, it would give a single beep and that's it.

And finally... if I let the car sit for more than two or three days, the battery won't have enough power to start the car. The battery is only two or three years old, it's an optima red top. Any ideas here?

Really any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

- Nick

martha_91

iTrader: (7)

I've had many of these same problems... my car has sat for awhile on two occasions... the first time when i restarted it, my left lift wouldnt raise at all so i did it manually, until a few days later it ran fine.... this time... i had the problem with the right light not going up all the way.... I wd40'd all the joints and pulled it up and pushed it down for awhile but now it works fine... it was that the battery was weak... i've never had a problem with the doors other than the fact that my driver lock cylinder had to be replaced from some1 trying to break in i guess? it was like that when i got it... it kept draining the battery cuz the security constantly registered that the light should be on and it slowly drained it everytime... my battery kept draining again and i worried for awhile, priced out alternators and everything (i also have the red-top optima) cuz it kept draining again, so i looked up a factory service manual in the sticky FAQ and found a way to do a check on the security system to make sure it runs good... it ran fine but while I did it I realized the my dome light didn't work at all (there are certain stages that it should have activated)... the filament was good but the bulb has its 2 connections on either end... turns out it was broken cuz the one cap just fell off and the switch was left in the on position... im currently trickle charging my battery so if i still have charge in the morning that was my issue... hope that helps

martha_91

iTrader: (7)

seems to be going deeper... battery is pooched will keep u posted as i progress

pfsantos

iTrader: (1)

The headlight retractor mechanism works with arms, one of which is attached to the motor via gear(s). Some of the attachment points are similar to wiper linkage components. Actually, the principle of wiper motor mechanisms is quite similar. Half a turn of the motor raises it, and another half turn in the same direction lowers it. Unbolt the headlight door assembly and study it a bit. Somehow the arm to the headlight door is not aligned or the motor switch (which causes it to stop, like a power antenna) is not aligned.

Re: your door lock linkage, you'll need to open the clip at the end of the threded rod, adjust, then clip it back. Need to take the door panel off It moved.

Re: Seat belt buckle. Probably not grounding to chassis, and thinks your belt isn't on. It will always only beep so much, then you'll only have a light, until the switch at the buckle is grounded.

Re: Alarm. Probably a door switch or a lock switch near the cylinder - unrelated to other problems - is your dome light turning on and off properly as you open a door with the dome switch on "door"? The alarm will beep only once if working properly, when you lock the last door from inside (or shut the trunk or hood if that's done last) and the car thinks the doors are closed. Make a new post on this if needed, also, search because I and other went over this in detail (you can advanced search "door alarm" and put my name under posters or something.

RX7_Nick

Thanks so much for the advice, at least now I know where to start looking. I'm in a tough position- off at college with not so much money. Don't have much time to troubleshoot on my own, don't have any tools here either- but when I'm home on break I like to get as much done to my car as possible. This past weekend it was plugs, oil, air filter and snow tires. Next weekend it will be taking care of all these annoying problems!

Pretty sure you're dead on about the headlights and doorlock. About the seat belt buckle and why I think the issue is related to the alarm, I think you may have misunderstood- the seatbelt alarm NEVER goes off. It constantly sounds, it's a persistant beeping as long as the car is on. Now if I buckle the belt, the alarm will silence, but the light will still blink.

I believe when it was working correctly, it would beep three times to "remind" me to buckle the seatbelt and then stop, as you had mentioned... but in this case, it never stops beeping until the belt is buckled... you can imagine how annoying that is when you turn the car on to warm up in cold weather, while you're packing the car- every time you open the door, and you can even hear it when the door is shut, blasted seatbelt alarm going off.

Now the security alarm has the same issue. I've been in the habit of setting the alarm every time I leave the car. Turn the car off, open my door, manually lock it from the inside- at this point I should have one solitary BEEP to notify me that the alarm is being armed, and then I lift the handle on the outside and shut the door. However, rather than one beep, I get the persitant beeping exactly as I do with the seatbelt alarm. It will continue to beep until I shut the door.

lol, man the dome light. Yeah, that's another problem I forgot about. Don't get me wrong, it works!! The contact is just terrible. Whenever I want the light to come on I usually have to take the cover off and pinch the metal tabs around the edges of the light, and it will come on no problem. I guess I could take a pair of pliers and solve that one pretty easy... just tend to forget about it.

Again thanks for the help thus far. Let me know if you have any more ideas!!!

pfsantos

iTrader: (1)

Hmmm...not really more ideas, but the beeping. Is it like a morse code, or just constant beeping with constant pauses?

Keep in mind the CPU sometimes goes crazy (cold solder joints) and will beep no matter what. You'll have to beg borrow or steal an ohmmeter or (not as good) a test light and check out switches (door, lock position) and grounds.

RX7_Nick

Nah nothing like morse code, just a constant beeping pulse, never pauses or misses a beat. I actually took a video of what's going on and put it on youtube, take a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsWtKB0hPjU

pfsantos

iTrader: (1)

Saw your video, and the seat belt light and beeping makes no sense. Unless you want to open the idiot light cluster up and see if there are shorts or other obvious problems, I say pull it out paritally, loose the bulb, and un-ground the buckle to shut the beeping. I don't give up easily, but you gotta pick your battles, at the end of the day.

Re: The alarm, I say again...when you're in the mood to take the door panels out, check the lock cylinder switches near the handles, and also (no need for door panel removal) the door switches, hood and hatch switches. Also, the FSM has a troubleshooting area for the security system. You said in the video the system arms - are you sure it activates when you open a door without a key (reaching inside through a window)?

RX7_Nick

Okay... just thought I'd do a quick update incase anyone ever happens to come across this sort of thing. Couple of the problems I fixed awhile ago but majority of them didn't get fixed until tonight.

The headlight arm simply wasn't tightened down in the right place, that was a very quick fix. I had a shop repair the manual door lock when it was in for a tune-up, and that went relatively smoothly as well.

As far as the alarm, seatbelt light, and I later found out my high beams won't stay on, and my ignition illuminator was blinking as well... all that was tied together. We called a guy that was able to send us a spare CPU box, said he had it tested before he sent it. We replaced that and then everything that had a problem didn't work at all. We plugged my old one back in and it all started half working again.

We took apart the CPU and ran a couple electrical checks on both, and we could see where mine was working and the replacement was completely dead. Also saw two totally corroded capacitors on my CPU. Replaced the capacitors, plugged it back in and EVERYTHING works.