Cougar

Well glad you got it going and thanks for the feedback. Purchasing a good battery brush and sealent will be good to have on hand for the future also. I have seen even good looking battery connections cause problems like this because of a slight film built up between the connection. Enjoy the new ride.

Oil leaks are usually around the head and pan areas. It will be pretty obvious if you have any.

It sounds like either the battery will not handle the load or there is a bad connection on the accessories wire. This wire may be a smaller seperate wire on the positive battery post. If you have another battery you could try that, it would be an easy test or have it load tested. It may also be a bad wire connection to the power systems for the car. Check for a internally corrodid accessory wire or for a dirty connection at the battery. As the systems draw current, the voltage drop across the bad connection feeding the systems increases. This causes the voltage to the accessories to drop. The power relays drop out due to low voltage and then input voltage goes back to normal as the current drops, until it is high enough to energize the relays again, and this keeps repeating, thus the pulsing of the lights. The wire with the fuse holder sounds like an add on to something and is not stock. Hard to say what it is for. Once you get the other problem fixed you may be able to see what is not functioning and go from there.

If your only getting 13mpg there is something way out of wack. You should get at least 20mpg.

I had a '88 turbo GL-10 for many years and it was great to drive. This was the top of the line car then. The head gaskets and intake manifold gaskets gave me a problem on mine along with the usual oil leaks. The alternator was a little weak also and had to work on that a couple of times. You should be able to get at least 23mpg around town with a manual I would guess.

Yeah baby, DRIVE ON.

I would be surprised if the radiator is bad after just two years if it was new to start with. I think the recommended time to change coolant is about every 2 years. If the old radiator was clogged I suppose the new one could be also if the system was not cleaned will enough when the new one was installed. I doubt changing your mixture of the coolant will do much to help this and I would leave it at 50% myself. The first thing you might want to check is to see if exhaust gases are getting into the coolant, so have a block check done. It is cheap and easy to do. If that is ok then I would try another thermostat as the current one may be restricting flow. Edit: I just read the last few posts and see it looks like you do have a blown head gasket(s). I would drive it as little as possible until it is fixed but most of the damage is most likely done already.

I would start by checking the brake light switch with a test light. If you get a good light indication there then you may have to check the flasher circuit. I think the circuit goes through that. You should also check to see if the hazard warning lights are working ok. It assume the socket melted beause of a poor connection in the socket. Since the other lights seem to work it sounds like the grounding to the lights is ok.

If you had no display while this was happening it may be a internal power problem in the unit itself. I would guess that the shop will try replacing the unit first off to try and fix this.

Glad you go it going Mike. Thanks for the feedback. Hope the rest is easy to complete.

Sorry I can't help you with a print of that year. I would guess that the switch is a double pole double throw type. Two wires in the middle common of the switch that tie to the motor. The connections on either side of the common will tie to 12 volts and ground and be reversed on the opposite side. By jumpering one side to the middle contacts it will drive the motor one direction and moving to the other side will make the window go the other way. Your problem may not be in the switch though unless you have proved it out. The power could be cut going to the switch and so nothing will happen until that is fixed. The motor may be bad also. I would jumper to the motor leads if you can get to them with the window down.

If you think a switch is bad, you can remove one of the other working ones and use it to roll it back up. You can also wire to the motor leads and roll the window back up. Hopefully the motor is ok. There may be some broken wires in the door jam causing these problems.

I would have the coolant checked for exhaust gases. You may have a head gasket leak. If that is ok then I would replace the radiator.

Your welcome for the help. Keep us posted on the progress.

Good point about the cables possibily being internally corrodid, Bill. That needs to be checked also.

I would first check for the switch at the shift lever. If it isn't there, then check the tranny.

To Edrach: Thanks for the very nice compliment. I try to keep the spelling in line but I do mess up at times along with some of my advice on problems. It's fun to learn and help with problems here. We have some sharp folks on this site to help with problems and you are one of them. Best regards. To 92 Loyale: If you do change out the alternator it is usually best the replace the battery at the same time also. This hurts the pocket book some but it can save you time and money in the long run.

There are several possibilities for the problem you are having. 1. The battery is weak and won't hold a charge as you are saying. If the battery is over five years old you should think about replacing it even if the problem is not the battery. The best thing to do would be to recharge the battery and have it load tested. This will tell you what the battery condition is. 2. The alternator is defective and not charging the battery as it should. When you charged the battery you may have been just running on the charge. To see if the alternator is working check the voltage of the battery while running the engine at around 2,000 rpm. You should see at least 14 volts at the battery with a low load on it. You can also feel the case of the alternator to get an indication if it is working after it has run for a bit. The case will be very warm if it is working. If the case is only slightly warm then something is wrong. 3. Another possibility is the electrical system has a current draw on the battery while the car is parked. If there is more than 80 milliamps of draw on the battery with the engine off then you need to check for a problem.

I like to use the Subaru filters and as far as oil goes just pick your favorite as long as it is a good oil. You should get the tanny fluid changed. This should be done every 30,000 miles I think.

From your last post Mike it almost sounds like the wires for the 'accessory' and 'off' positions on the ignition switch are reversed instead of the switch being shorted. It would be interresting to know what happens when the key is in the 'on' position. Another thing to check is the temperature sensor wire. I think the sensor has a lower resistance the hotter the coolant gets. Try removing the wire from the sensor and see if the gauge indication goes down. If it dosen't change, the lead may be shorted to ground somehow or the wire to the gauge is connected to a different sensor. You stated "the radio would not turn on with the key in the off position, while the fans would", do you mean the cooling fans and the blower motor? The part about the radio is puzzleing.

To AVK- Well, after reading the original post again it looks like he mentions both of them. It seems to me that the ignition switch has a problem somehow since he states that the accessories will turn off while the switch is in between positions. If power was being supplied from somewhere else then the switch position would not matter, as I see it.

To AVK- I think power for the fans is always available even with the ignition off so it can cool the radiator when needed, even while the engine is off. Something is causing the gauge to read incorrectly though. To Mikeanderso- Something I missed on the first post is when you said 'If I cycled the key between lock and acc, I could get them to switch off'. This means that there is a problem with the ignition switch somehow. When it is in the off position it is still suppling power to the ignition. You may have a internally shorted switch.

Thanks for the notice on the ECU Moosens. I wondered about that. I guess there is some sort of fuel pump control circuit then that has a timer circuit in it to cut the power to the pump.

I assume there is a ECU under the dash that you could look at and possibly check for some stored codes. Another thought I have is to see if there is signal coming from the crank angle sensor. If there is no signal then I think the fuel pump control will be shut down like was suggested after a delay of time like you said in your post. I think this will set a error code in the ECU. You really should get a DVM to check things with but a test light will work also for most testing and is less expensive if you need to watch the funds.

If your coolant level is ok then your thermostat may be stuck open. To see if your CEL light works just turn the ignition to the on position and it should light up with the rest of the warning lights. If it doesn't, then the lamp is bad or possibly the circuit to it from the ECU has a problem which I have seen in the past. It may be a bad driver IC in the ECU.