|
The subject of this tirade is a 1990 760 turbo. 226k on the odo.
So. I've been putting up with an intermittent problem with my neutral safety switch for a couple months and finally decided to do something about it today. Had to remove the console, pull the housing that holds the radio/tape deck (as well as the radio/tape deck, of course), and remove the driver side knee bolster. Sadly, all this was required for my car to R&R the neutral safety switch.
Being a cheap bastid, I decided to play around with the switch and actually managed to successfully repair it. Reinstalled it, got everything else put back together, and then tonight went for a short drive. Stopped off at a local convenience store on the way home, then noticed as I was about to leave that my headlights weren't illuminating when I switched them on.
Drove slowly home with parking lights on -- fortunately only about 1/2 mile. Flicked the switch from off to mid-setting to lights frequently on the way home. Played with the foglight switch too, since I had had it on at the time. Half a block from the house, the headlights lit.
Got home and played with the headlight switch some more, and managed to get them not to light anymore. Once, when rocking the fog light switch back and forth, I got them to light. But after that, no joy for either one.
Now it's time for the confession. I've owned this car for about a year, and I'm good friends with the guy I bought it from, who owned it about eight years. But the original owner must have had a bunch of weird aftermarket crap installed, like a car alarm and maybe a trunk-mounted CD player or something, because there's this HUGE gaggle of wiring, complete with three or four relays, that dumps out from under the knee bolster and that, as near as I can tell, has nothing to do with the basic operation of the vehicle. Car alarms and CD players were long gone by the time I bought the car, but their aftermath remained. Apparently.
But of course, I'm too chicken to yank it all out just in case some of it matters.
So anyway, I had to be poking around in the car's electrical guts as I was doing the fix to the neutral safety switch, and I'm figuring I got crosswise with something under there.
But I haven't a CLUE as to what I would have disturbed or tweaked to cause this intermittent (mostly mittant I'm thinking) condition, especially since I didn't get close to the vicinity of the headlight switch. Not that that means much of anything when dealing with electrical issues, I realize.
So, I'm figuring this is just about as hopeless a diagnostic undertaking for a web-based forum one could possibly ask for, but if you think you just might possibly have a few light rays to shine on the matter, I'm willing to pay attention.
In the meantime, I'll be dropping that bolster again, multimeter in hand, muttering to myself, and hoping that the '90's wiring isn't all that different from that found in my trusty old 82-88 Haynes.
Best,
Michael
|
