hey guys. i need help. my 90 348 has taken to just plain being mean. she started turning the (climate) fan motors on and off at will (lots O' fun), and the clock wont stay set. fine. after a complete dissassembly of the center console with no joy, i learned that, like my old TV, a sharp rap on the side seemed to stop it. fine. last week, after a nice drive and putting her in the garage, when i turned off the key, the running lights were still on, and no amount of fiddling with the controls would suffice. whatever. no problem, i'll figure it out later. pull the disconnect. so... after looking at all of the wonderous exploded parts pictures, tracing and understanding the wiring diagrams, and a dozen cleverly worded searches here, i went back and looked at it again. no joy. so in exasperation, i gave the center console another sharp rap on the side, and behold.... a change. the running lights went out, the dashboard instrument lights came on, and i started to ponder which was the worse decision....ex wife # 3, or this pretty little red car, both of which, well, never mind... maybe it's a kharma thing. does anyone have any experience with this, or do i have to rewire her from the ground (no pun intended) up? btw, whose idea was it to put fuse boxes in a place where i need an osteopath to fix my back every time i need to change a fuse...lol
Get yourself some eletrical contact cleaner and some Stabilant 22a. Underneath your dash near where your left knee points when you drive are 5 or 6 ground posts on a single exposed metal connector. You can see them without disassembling anything if you lay on your back on the floor and look up underneath your steering wheel with a flashlight. Coat all of those metal ground connections liberally with corrosion block or contact cleaner and Stabliant 22a. Snake your hand up there and wiggle them all back and forth. Repeat this process for all of your gage connections behind your black dashboard (two screws to remove the whole thing). Repeat this again for your A/C computer (several screws to disassemble) behind your verticle center console. Be sure to liberally coat each pin, each pin socket, and each solder point on all of the circuit boards. Repeat this process again for each fuse and relay in the passenger footwell. Ditto for each fuse in the front bonnet (including the "hidden" bullet in-line fuse on the passenger side of your A/C blower in the front hood compartment...and again for the relays and fuses on your ABS computer. Repeat again on each ground connection, MAF data cable (black), and sensor connection in the rear engine compartment. Because 348's have Grounding issues that are flat-out cured by Stabilant 22a. Solved my A/C fan problem, clock problem (same as you), and dim lights problem. I even mounted a magnesium anode onto one of the grounding screws on my radiator to delay electrolysis. Now everything on my car actually works!
I guess I'm going to have to take a shot at working on my grounds. My 348 has started turning the A/C fan on and off by itself fairly regularly now (it used to do it only once in a great while). And although I never need to reset my clock, the clock display goes out every time I turn on the lights (it has been doing this the entire time I've owned the car). I don't know how many "common grounds" there are on the car, but I'm aware of the one above the driver's left knee, and the one behind the passenger's footwell fuse panel, and there is one on the right side of the heater fan box. Probably at least one or two others. I'm betting that I don't have a problem in the printed circuit panel for the climate control system. My A/C seems to work fine except for the "ghost" turning the fan on. NC, does your 348 have an aftermarket alarm system tied into the lights?
No alarm system that i have seen. (yet)..... Thanks for all the help, guys.... guess it's time to get to work. "Nothing to it, but to do it" i guess. thanks again.
James - FWIW, my HVAC unit was very loosely connected with the main (20-pin?) connector on the back. The little plastic clips that hold the harness to the HVAC unit seem to have worn down or broken. I took mine apart a few weeks ago and used contact cleaner and Stabilant. It's been ok for now, but obviously if that harness comes loose it'll go crazy. Jeff - mine has a blower ghost too! Sometimes it'll just go full blast with no warning (or lights) whatsoever. I suspect a grounding issue somewhere too -- as I mysteriously found a screw and washer near my left foot a few weeks ago. Gotta love the build-quality of a 348, huh? -Daniel
