Hi all, Lumping in a few questions by geography here. I love turning wrenches but I am definitely electrically challenged. Pulling the gauge cluster is giving me a bit of anxiety so I want to check with the group mind first. I do have the Birdman fuse panels on this car. Probably the easiest here: Doing a search I see that there are a couple different configurations to the corner dash lights. On my US 81 GTSi the top right amber is a cold/warm up light. Illuminates on start and (up until this last week) usually goes off in 2-5 minutes. I noticed recently that it was occasionally staying on longer and once started fluttering back on and off randomly when the car was fully warmed up. Where is the switch that sends the signal for this light so I can start checking things when it happens again. Funky signal when windshield wipers going: Here in sunny So Cal I have only driven the car in rain a small amount. Never noticed this before a couple weeks ago so I don't know if its new or just never noticed. Had to turn my windshield wipers on and off a few times driving in some light rain. Not every time I turned them on... and when it was happening not every time the wipers went (maybe 75% of the time) when I would hear the relay click to fire the wiper my speedometer would drop to 0 then come right back. Strangely intermittent. Lastly my oil pressure warning light seems to be working perfectly so I'm confident I always have oil pressure (or I would be having daily heart failure.) My Oil Pressure gauge on the other hand is intermittent. When cold it comes up on start to proper operating pressure 90-95% of the time. Sometime after that it starts randomly dropping to zero then back to normal like a light switch. I have attempted to check the switch by the oil filter when the gauge is at 0 and it seems to be working but I can't rule that out. Any reasons anyone can think of that warm would be less reliable than cold? Hope to get in there only once... Thanks, Jay
It may be several things causing the gauge to drop. The first is a bad or loose connection. This would cause intermittent drops. The connection by the sending unit is easy to find and test. If you ground it with the key on, the gauge should show full pressure.
The thermoswitch for cold-running vs warm-running controlling that light is mounted to the coolant expansion tank -- item 64 here: Image Unavailable, Please Login The logic is: When coolant cold = thermoswitch is open (i.e., infinite Ohms between the two terminals) When coolant hot = thermoswitch closed (i.e., zero Ohms, or just a few ohms, between the two terminals) With your symptom, make sure the terminal connections are good as if either connection is open during warm-running = the warning light will come "on" and the ignition timing will be retarded (and the cold start air valve system will be activated, but, since you don't report that the idle RPM increases a bunch when the warning light comes "on" during warm-running = your cold start air valve system must be disabled/removed).
