what in the hell is wrong with my moms car.

[Yaj Yak]

1998 regal ls. bone stock. 204k miles. og engine/trans everaythang.


she pulls out of the garage... turns the heat on (the fan on basically) and her headlights turn off.

thats it.

what in the fuck. i don't even know where to start.

Click to read more...

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

sounds like that may be a ground issue or the blower fan is drawing massive juice cause its about to go out

check the headlight connector for voltage drop while the lights are on and then witht he fan on/lights "on"

 

[Yaj Yak]

okokokok

 

[SaturdaysGS]

IIRC the headlight switch (auto lights / pull switch correct?) on those are known to have issues whether it's ground or the ignition switch I forget but I believe there was a thread on RegalGS. Org way back when I had my Regal (~5 years ago).

 

[Mike K]

Ignition switch is my guess.

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

well dep on if its auto temp control or manual temp/fan
looks like the headlight stuff (besides the bcm controlled DRL's) ground to G201 under the left side of the inst panel while the fan/hvac controls use G200 behind the glove box on pass side of dash support.

i did find the DRL circuits take power from the 10amp HVAC fuse which is seperate from the two bigger low/high blower fuses

is this only affecting the DRl's or headlights? both? auto or manual climate controls?
wiring is probably the same but this LS is the 3100 or NA 3800?

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

high blower fuse is hot all the time and relay controlled, only low speed is ign switch fed so if the problem occurs only on the lower speeds then it may be ign switch

in high the ign switch only feed low current power to the hvac control head

 

[TommyGloves]

This might help...

ClubGP Message Forum -
IGNITION SAVER MOD

Mine was acting very funny No auto lights ,fans speeds were all over the place heat seat ,DRL's flashing . Now it's all back to normal .Took longer to get the cover off then to splice and solder 3 wires

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

relay mod is a damn good idea, i used to do it with the older GM ign switches

the diagrams DO show the systems fuses feeding from the same terminal of the ign switch so thats probably the issue

btw if the owner is one of those folks with a 2 lb keychain wadd tell em its a good idea to remove some of that weight

 

[wolfe]

1998 regal ls..

^ this is what's wrong with it

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

that too

 

[Yaj Yak]

 

[Bub]

Ignition switch is my guess.

Agreed

 

[Yaj Yak]

update-

im looking into this finally tonight- going to do that ignition switch dealio. here is what she texted me today which leads me to believe even more that is the culprit:

Update... If the fan is all the way high the heat will turn on when I start the car. If I am still going but turn heat off it will not turn back on. If I turn car off wait minute to restart car then heat will come back on. Crazy.

So yeah. that alone is making me feel ignition switch.

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

if she gently moves the key through the detent's play she may notice it'l flicker/switch on/off

so how big is her keychain?

 

[Yaj Yak]

I'm thinking she gots some weight on it fo sho.

I'll see shortly.

 

[Yaj Yak]

if she gently moves the key through the detent's play she may notice it'l flicker/switch on/off

so how big is her keychain?

Alright so keys are small... But she always leaves her keys in the ignition...

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

the root issue with the ignition switch is poor contact on the fingers usually from arcing and this only affects the circuits fed by it that dont have a separate relay switched feed.

you could pull it apart and clean it

did you ask her to gently twist and wiggle it next time and see if the systems twitch n glitch?

that last parts sounds awkward when i reread it

 

[Yaj Yak]

omg

 

[Yaj Yak]

the root issue with the ignition switch is poor contact on the fingers usually from arcing and this only affects the circuits fed by it that dont have a separate relay switched feed.

you could pull it apart and clean it

did you ask her to gently twist and wiggle it next time and see if the systems twitch n glitch?

that last parts sounds awkward when i reread it

sooo is that bypass going to help me at all?

i have her car now ill try the twist n wiggle

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

the relay bypass is perfect but the contacts are already arced so it might not hurt to clean it or youll just have to cycle the switch a crapload to let it "scrub" the contacts clean

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

what he did moves the power traces just far enough the pins/fingers now contact "new" surfaces

doeeet

 

[02BlueGT]

Open the ignition switch and clean it, it is free, and a common cause of random electrical problems like this.

Click here for Directions to Clean your ignition switch connections

 

[Yaj Yak]

that ignition mod dealio fixed it. didn't want to clean it out... just wanted to make sure to get it done and get it.

relay was this one from advance:

Buy BWD Relay R3177 at Advance Auto Parts


13$. and then some connectors and wire that were sitting around. bam fixed. took around 45 minutes start to finish.

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

keep in mind that having loads on while turning the ignition key doesnt help things.

on the digital fan controllers i believe there's a turn on delay but for most of the manual systems and resister systems leaving them on while shutting off and turning on the car increases the current draw making the arcing/pitting worse.
turn off your fan/wipers/etc before you shut it down and esp at startup with inductive spikes and all....