Cougar

If this car has OBD-2 then you should monitor the ECT sensor reading while the enigne is warming up. The running rich issue could very well be due to the sensor being bad like Fairtax4me mentioned earlier.

You could install a used replacement CD player since you have already removed the bad one. Ebay is a good place to find used ones at a resonable price. This very thing happened to a friend of mine who purchased a used '05 Outback. The CD player was trying to eject disks and draining the battery.

I assume the ground wire for the temperature sensor is the same as chassis ground and if so then tieing the ground of the sensor would be no different than placing one lead of the resistor too chassis ground and the other to the sensor signal lead. Since placing the resistor in series with the signal lead made the meter show cold it means there is too much resistance added. I suggest you try to find a 100 ohm poteniometer and a 100 ohm resistor. Add a couple of test leads to the pot, one lead to the wiper contact and the other to one of the ends of the pot. Then place the two leads in series with the sensor lead and see if you can adjust the pot and make the gauge read what you think it should read at according to the engine temperature. If the gauge goes too high still with the pot maxed out then add the 100 ohm resistor to the circuit and try adjusting the pot again. If you find a place that makes the gauge show a valid temperature reading then remove the pot and measure the resistance between the two leads. Then you can purchase a resistor as close to that value as possible. I'm not sure how calibrated the gauge will be if you add the resistor but you could check things using an infrared temperature sensor and compare readings to come up with a correction chart.

Does it make sense to do the hard things first? If you first don't simply pop the cover to the fusible links and make sure they are good first you could possibly waste a lot of time and effort looking for a problem where it isn't at. Just sayin, it's your time and effort.

One of the common issues for this kind of trouble is due to a loose fuse link connection so check for that. Look in the plastic box mounted on the coolant reservoir. The trouble is most likely there. The black link carries the most current and it might be loose.

You're right 1LT. The newer vehicles, or some at least, have three wires going to the back of the alternator instead of the usual two. The third wire does go to the ECU.

I concur with you mikaleda. Whether the current for the field comes through a lamp bulb, a current meter, or external regulator, power needs to get to the exciter for the action to happen.

This may mean there is a ground problem to the engine area. A simple thing you could do is add a temporary ground between the engine and the negative battery post. If the gauge goes back to a normal reading then you have a bad ground somewhere. Cleaning the ground connections may help.

I've said it before and I guess I'll say it again, the ignition power supplies current to the alternator field windings through the battery warning light bulb filament, which is in series with the alternator field windings. If you open a series circuit (remove the warning bulb) all the current in the circuit will stop flowing and so the field windings will not be able to keep the field up to excite the stator windings. No excited field in an alternator equals no power output from the alternator. There's nothing wrong with the alternator, it just needs to have power to get the exciter field built up and get the action going. As far as I know all Soob models use this design.

Hopefully that will fix you up but if the problem returns you might check the MAF sensor next. Cleaning it might help.

Here is a link to a site that can help you. http://www.troublecodes.net/Subaru/

Power to the warning lights comes from the ignition switch. The return side of the lights tie to the proper spots but they also are diode isolated and tied to the field winding of the alternator, along with the battery warning light to work in the test mode KOnEOff. Pull out the battery warning light and see what happens to the charging voltage. Then you will believe.

You're right of course about the AC can't happen if the alternator isn't turning. I'm a little stumped on how to explain what happened in this case. Very good sluthing there Gloyale.

Having a defective battery warning light will indeed disable the alternator ( I learned about "the warning light" the hard way many years ago working on a Ford truck. Many hours were spent in trying to find out why the alternator wouldn't work). The field is charged up using current through that lamp. If there is no field current you have no charging action. The newer alternators have the voltage regulator build inside them. They are electronic instead of the older external relay style.

The warning lights should turn off when you disconnect the plug to the alternator since the ground for those lights is made inside the alternator. We wanted to make sure that the wire didn't have a ground on it when the wire was disconnected and the light would stay on if there was a ground on it. When the alternator is working voltage is generated on that wire so it isn't at ground potential anymore unless the alternator has a problem. You already stated the battery warning light turns on with the key so it looks like the alternator is the problem here even though you tried others. LIke I stated earlier, both of the wires on the back side of the alternator should have close to battery voltage on them when the alternator is working.

You can install all the good alternators you want. If the field wire is grounded they won't work either. If you follow the advice I gave you in post 19 it will show you what you need to do to fix this. Using your voltmeter is the best tool you can have to work on this problem.

That method warked okay back in the day but shouldn't be used considering the electronics that is used in todays cars.

It is important that the battery warning light works because the field windings of the alternator are powered though that lamp. Does the battery warning light turn OFF, like it should do, when the engine is running? If it doesn't you may have a ground problem on that lead. If you disconnect the plug on the back side of the alternator the warning light should not turn on if you start the car up. If it does turn on then there is a ground on that lead that needs to be removed. There should be two leads on the back side of the alternator and both of those leads should be close to battery voltage if things are good with the engine running. Another lead to check is the main output lead of the alternator. Is that where you made your previous tests at or was it the battery posts? If you checked the battery then check the main output lead using ground as your reference. The difference between the battery and the alternator output voltages should be very little. You can also check the voltage drop across the lead while there is a good load on the system. Place the red probe on the alternator output and the black probe on the positive battery post. You should have less than .5 volts on the lead if the connection is good. You stated that other warning lights are on so there is some concern there may be a problem in the cluster. Perhaps the field wire has a ground on it. I think it is blk/wht wire.

Thanks for the follow up Sister7. Good stuff to know.

It's a good thing a person with your savy got this problem Gloyle. This particular trouble could caused some other less skilled techs some real heart ache. It sounds to me that the alternator may have been back feeding some AC voltage on the field lead. I suppose the AC could have been on the output instead, and pulling the rear connector disabled the alternator and cleared the problem.

Before calling the ECU bad I suggest you make sure all power connections into the ECU are ok. There may be a intermittent relay problem that supplies power to the ECU, like the ignition or main relay.

If all the windows are having a problem then I would suspect a power problem to the main panel. There may be a broken wire in the harness located in the door jam.

Perhaps you have a problem with the fuel pressure. Have you checked the fuel filter and pressure regulator for a problem?

I was thinking you may have the plug wires in the wrong positions in the disty but I see you checked that out already. At this point I would mark the position of the disty and then loosen the clamp on it. Then while someone tries to start the engine rotate the disty in a direction that the engine respondes to try and fire up.

Another thing to check for is air leaks in the intake manifold gaskets.