To much St. Patrick day?
Electrical Gremlin
I had a strange experience with the Z today.
All seemed well when I picked my dad up from the place that was doing some maintenance on his truck and took him to lunch. However when we went to leave the windows would not roll up or down, the Climate control would not work (and the pod was not illuminated), the power steering was not assisting at all regardless of vehicle speed, the antilock light was on and the turn signals didn't work. Everything else worked, speedo, stereo, locks and gauges etc. seemed unaffected.
When I got home I checked the service manual, but as far as I can tell there is nothing specifically common to the affected circuits that might be a culprit. Of course I checked all the fuses that had any relation to any of the systems to no avail as well as all the fusible links.
After it had sat for about an hour or so in the shade I went back to do some more trouble-shooting and everything was working normally. I'm stumped
Anyone else experience this? Any speculators?
All seemed well when I picked my dad up from the place that was doing some maintenance on his truck and took him to lunch. However when we went to leave the windows would not roll up or down, the Climate control would not work (and the pod was not illuminated), the power steering was not assisting at all regardless of vehicle speed, the antilock light was on and the turn signals didn't work. Everything else worked, speedo, stereo, locks and gauges etc. seemed unaffected.
When I got home I checked the service manual, but as far as I can tell there is nothing specifically common to the affected circuits that might be a culprit. Of course I checked all the fuses that had any relation to any of the systems to no avail as well as all the fusible links.
After it had sat for about an hour or so in the shade I went back to do some more trouble-shooting and everything was working normally. I'm stumped
Anyone else experience this? Any speculators?
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Son of a Beoch did it again! Though it seems now that it is intent to stay inoperative this time. What is really pissing me off is I can't find anything wrong or common to the affected circuits!
Check the orange plug on the relay box under the hood....
It looks good, all the connections are corrosion free and look to be in good shape.
A wild guess here: have you checked the ignition relay? There are two sets of contacts, one of which goes to the windows thru connector M12. Tied in around there are other circuits that also go to the A/C, Blower Relay. Haven't checked the cruise, ABS diagrams. Look at EL-5, HA-110 & 111 and wiring at connectors M9 thru M12, for a start. Find the locations in the EL section starting page 116. .02c
I would focus on the ground connections, there are a few as you know. Battery to chasis, engine, etc.
Been working on it for about 2 hours checking everything I can think of as well as what has been suggested. Thus far I am totally stumped. I can't find anything wrong, I even checked connectivity on the ignition switch itself.
At this point I have checked and rechecked all the fuses. I have been through the relays and swapped out any that I thought could possibly have an affect on any of the items in question. Out of desparation, I have verified power at the ignition switch. And I have checked all the grounds I have been able to find. I have also inspected and reseated several of the harness connectors (M10, M11 and M12 for example) as well as the two connectors by the relay box under the hood.
I'm about to go and try to find body ground B7 but I'll be back soon in hopes someone has an idea, because I'm flummoxed.
At this point I have checked and rechecked all the fuses. I have been through the relays and swapped out any that I thought could possibly have an affect on any of the items in question. Out of desparation, I have verified power at the ignition switch. And I have checked all the grounds I have been able to find. I have also inspected and reseated several of the harness connectors (M10, M11 and M12 for example) as well as the two connectors by the relay box under the hood.
I'm about to go and try to find body ground B7 but I'll be back soon in hopes someone has an idea, because I'm flummoxed.
Still thinking the ignition relay (ignition not being the spark, but as I recall Japanese ignition meaning power up).
If you can zoom in on this drawing you will see the majority of the items you say are acting up come off the contacts of the ignition relay. Look to the middle of the drawing and what the ign relay contacts feed to the lower right of the contacts and to the far right/middle past the fuses. Are you sure you're getting power to the ign relay? Swapping the relay would not do anything if power is not getting to it or if the ground is bad.
If you can zoom in on this drawing you will see the majority of the items you say are acting up come off the contacts of the ignition relay. Look to the middle of the drawing and what the ign relay contacts feed to the lower right of the contacts and to the far right/middle past the fuses. Are you sure you're getting power to the ign relay? Swapping the relay would not do anything if power is not getting to it or if the ground is bad.
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You're absolutely right dumbstone, where did you find that diagram? I don't recall seeing it in the Service Manual.
Regardless thanks for that, the IGN relay or something associated with it must be the culprit as it is common to all the systems I'm having problems with. When I get home from work I'll locate it and attempt to verify that I have power to it etc. Looks like there is a circuit breaker in line with it too, but I'm guessing that it is good as the power seat still works fine.
I'll post up my findings when I find them, thanks again!
Regardless thanks for that, the IGN relay or something associated with it must be the culprit as it is common to all the systems I'm having problems with. When I get home from work I'll locate it and attempt to verify that I have power to it etc. Looks like there is a circuit breaker in line with it too, but I'm guessing that it is good as the power seat still works fine.
I'll post up my findings when I find them, thanks again!
Hopefully, you find the culprit in this area. (If you can place any faith in my diagram 
)
The diagram I made up from consolidating the factory manual schematics.
)The diagram I made up from consolidating the factory manual schematics.
I did a little bit of digging this evening, however I don't know the physical location of the IGN relay referenced in the schematic. I found an "IGN coil" in the relay box under the hood and there is a similar type relay in the driver kick panel, so I swapped them, but it didn't fix my problem. I'll do some more digging this weekend, not too fussed about it as I bought a new dd Monday anyway.
Ignition relay gets its power from fuse #10 in fuse block, if that helps.
Rear window defogger relay in the fuse box is the same as Ign relay, if that helps.
There's 2 grounds that tie back into the Ign relay, so wouldn't expect them both to be bad.
Still trying to climb this tree.
Rear window defogger relay in the fuse box is the same as Ign relay, if that helps.
There's 2 grounds that tie back into the Ign relay, so wouldn't expect them both to be bad.
Still trying to climb this tree.
I googled electric gremlins and those are two good pictures I picked out. The plug is actually a door light timer from a car I cannot remember. The a/c was dripping on it and shorted it out I believe.
Ok, I had some time yesterday evening so I continued troubleshooting the Z. The only thing I actually did was verify the fusible links by the battery with an ohm meter and plug the driver's side window switch back in. Everything works again.
I don't know if it will continue working, time will tell. Quite frustrating as I can't find the problem if it is working.
I don't know if it will continue working, time will tell. Quite frustrating as I can't find the problem if it is working.
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