Just like the title says, I have some wierd **** going on with my FD.

The first problem happens when you push on the brake pedal. All the dash lights illuminate.

The next problem is the "Room" fuse(the fuse that controls the dome light) blows every time I try a new fuse. No matter what size, it fries!

The third problem is when you turn on/off the headlights, the motors don't go up or drop the headlights. They just turn on the headlights and stay down or up. Then you have to manually push the headlight button, and they go up or drop down.

The last problem is, when you crank the engine, the motor turns over like it should, but after a rotation or two, it bogs down like it isn't getting full power?
The battery is holding a good charge, it just feels like someone flip'd a switch and i'm only getting half the cranking power I should. The same thing happens when the fans are going when the motor is off. I will turn the key on, the fans turn on, and then 3 seconds later they bog down like something is blocking half of the power to them.


Any ideas or experience with these problems would be very helpful. I appreciate your time.
Travis

 

for the third problem, its the headlight multiswitch.

the others, i'm not so sure

 

Maybe a grounding problem?

 

Clean the battery posts, engine and chassis grounds.

Paul

 

And where is the multiswitch?




For skir and Gadd, i've checked all my grounds. Taken all of them off, cleaned every single one, used sandpaper to make sure they were hitting good metal, etc, etc.

 

people always use the answer, "uhhhh, grounding problem?" when they have no idea what the damn problem is.


remove the steering wheel and the clock spring and there is a big multiswitch (with the steering shaft going through the middle of it) that has the two rods sticking out (one sticking out each side). the left side is the headlight side and the right side is the wipers. its all one big unit, so you just slide it off of the steering shaft and replace it.
its not a huge project, i did it shortly after i got my FD (same problem you're having). you just have to be careful removing and steering wheel and putting it back on the same splines so its straight when you're done

and disconnect the battery before you remove the airbag.


as for your slow cranking and slow fans, its probably the battery. when batteries go bad they usually hold a full charge but the voltage drops down too far when there is any kind of electrical load on it. have somebody crank the car while you hold a multimeter on the + and - of the battery. also do this with the fans on to see how far the voltage drops.


i'm not sure about the dash lights or the room fuse.

 

Was just a thought, he never said he checked the grounds until now. That's where I would of started at and gone from there. Sorry if it upset you

 

it didnt upset me.

 

Ahhh, makes sense! I will definately replace this. Did you buy yours used or did you go through Ray @ Malloy?
Thanks for your help.
Travis

 

Anyone else know where to look for the room light problem. I've traced the wires all the way, and everything looks good. Are they tied into another relay or something?
Thanks again,
Travis

 

Bad grounds, fix the short in your cabin light, possibly a bad positive cable/connection as you have a cable getting hot while your trying to start the car causing you to get reduced voltage while cranking it. Since your trying different size fuses (and can't find one to locate the short in your wire) just use a large bolt and I'll bet the culprit will go to sending you a smoke signal locater, if not a full on fire. My point is that if the wire is shorted there's not a fuse made that will work or correct the problem without causing further damage. Your brake switch turning on your dash lights is an indication you have a bad ground in one of those circuits and it's using the dash to find it's ground.

 

"smoke signal locater"

I almost thought you were serious. I've been through a lot of grounds. Where can I find a diagram for every ground?
Thanks for the input.
Travis

 

Where the grounds are located from the factory can be found in the FSM electrical diagrams located at the top of the 3rd gen section in a sticky. If you just want to get an idea of where they are by looking over the car they will be the heavier wires or braided looking bare wire going from the chassis to the motor, trans, or the exhaust system. There are also smaller ground wires located within the various harness's and other than being black and bolted to the body are alittle harder to find .

 

That's what I was looking for. The FSM. Thanks man!

 

for the 2nd issue:

is there and aftermarket alarm or auto engine start hooked up?

I had a similar problem before where the dome light fuse was blowing out constantly. I tested my alarm pulled out the alarm brain and the fuse didn't burn out anymore, so I traced down all the wires and it was the dome light illuminating one that keeps the dome light on for a period of time when you arm/disarm your alarm.