Need electrical help - 1998 Regal LS
Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 12:04 am
Just picked up a nice 1998 Regal LS, but what I thought was a bad blower motor resistor may have more to it....
Has manual dual climate control, but only works on low and high. Half of the time it doesn't work at all, and only at full hot temperature. Changing the airflow/mode works fine though. Cruise control will also not work - I have gotten the cruise light to come on for a split second though. BUT....odometer is dim like the headlights are on.
Upon hitting the trip odo or finagling with the climate control, the odo will light up to full strength, then revert once I turn the fan off. When it does this, I can hear the faint click from the headlight switch like when you turn the headlights on. It will do this repeatedly as I switch the fan on and off. At night time, it has auto headlights, but sometimes they don't work....if the fan kicks in like it should, the headlights also come on, but if the fan decides not to work, I have to manually turn them on. If the fan is working, I can make the auto headlights turn on and off by simply turning the fan on and off.
While driving it tonight, I turned the high beams on, and they were hesitant to engage, then upon getting them to work, all exterior lights went black, until I turned the highbeams off. It may have coincided with the fan kicking on or off, as I was experimenting with it at the time. DIC also does not work, and the fog lamps do not work - buttons to both are all non-responsive.
Upon reading online, it seems a common issue is ignition switches that have all these accessories tied in together.....does this seem right? So far, it's starting and running great, no cutting out or unusual things happening with the key or ignition itself. All backlighting works perfectly inside, steering wheel controls for audio work perfectly, gauges all work perfectly, radio works perfect, wipers work perfect. Check engine light is on (maybe unrelated, but it runs and drives great, gets 30MPG) and change oil light comes on for the first minute or two after startup. So.....any thoughts?
Has manual dual climate control, but only works on low and high. Half of the time it doesn't work at all, and only at full hot temperature. Changing the airflow/mode works fine though. Cruise control will also not work - I have gotten the cruise light to come on for a split second though. BUT....odometer is dim like the headlights are on.
Upon hitting the trip odo or finagling with the climate control, the odo will light up to full strength, then revert once I turn the fan off. When it does this, I can hear the faint click from the headlight switch like when you turn the headlights on. It will do this repeatedly as I switch the fan on and off. At night time, it has auto headlights, but sometimes they don't work....if the fan kicks in like it should, the headlights also come on, but if the fan decides not to work, I have to manually turn them on. If the fan is working, I can make the auto headlights turn on and off by simply turning the fan on and off.
While driving it tonight, I turned the high beams on, and they were hesitant to engage, then upon getting them to work, all exterior lights went black, until I turned the highbeams off. It may have coincided with the fan kicking on or off, as I was experimenting with it at the time. DIC also does not work, and the fog lamps do not work - buttons to both are all non-responsive.
Upon reading online, it seems a common issue is ignition switches that have all these accessories tied in together.....does this seem right? So far, it's starting and running great, no cutting out or unusual things happening with the key or ignition itself. All backlighting works perfectly inside, steering wheel controls for audio work perfectly, gauges all work perfectly, radio works perfect, wipers work perfect. Check engine light is on (maybe unrelated, but it runs and drives great, gets 30MPG) and change oil light comes on for the first minute or two after startup. So.....any thoughts?