Red Herring

[gtluke]

So yesterday I finally got off my ass and did some upgrades to my galant I've been putting off. I ditched that stupid relay adder thingy that mounts on the battery. DSM's have them too, it's basically all the bullshit that was added to the car after it was designed. On the galant its the power belts, ABS, and main harness fuse. I think there was one more thing, I forget. The only one I needed was the main harness fuse.
So I removed that stupid thing and put in a double maxi-fuse block. One of the main harness fuse (80a) and one spare for the fuel pump rewire I'm about to do. Those following my saga might remember that I've had a supra pump in this car for almost 10 years now, not rewired. As a result of the extra power draw I have melted every connector along the way. The MPI relay connector (twice), the one on the actual fuel pump, and recently the one in the trunk harness. Needless to say it's time to rewire. The new maxi-fuse is my new source of power for when I do it.
So, I do all that, clean up that whole area, turn the car on and nothing works. Trace my steps and realize that inside the old fuse adder there was a power distribution pig-tailed off of it. Hook that up to an aux connector on the maxi-fuse block and we are now good to go.

My wife pulls my car in last night and says my headlights don't work, wtf? Figure I just left the harness unplugged or something since it was in the way. I go out this morning and it's plugged in. There is power at the headlight fuse, power AT the relay switch and everything else in the car work perfectly fine. WTF?
I dig around in my manual trying to figure out what it is. Since the parking lights work I know it's not the switch or wiring. WTF!
Digging through the manual I find that the factory alarm has a relay that switches the coil power to the headlight relay from the acc key position to battery power, so that it can flash the headlights with the key off if someone breaks into the car. Otherwise when you turn the key off my headlights turn off.
I go check that relay and it's not switching. It's broken, not passing power through. swap it out for another of the same relay that's on the firewall and the headlights work.
WTF
COMPLETELY unrelated, my headlights died because of that relay. I may have bumped that relay while working on the car but it has nothing to do with what I was working on.
f***ing red herring...

 

[iceman69510]

Good troubleshooting work though.

 

[turbowop]

I remember karter's headlights quit on him some years ago. I wonder if that had anything to do with it.

 

[mooserage]

Seriously, nice job troubleshooting, some of the noobs can take a little tip from this. Thats interesting though, I never figured the headlights were connected to the factory alarm that way, good to know.

 

[gtluke]

Yeah, if you unplug the alarm headlight relay your regular headlight relay stops working.
They COULD Have just let the headlights work with the key off and eliminated this relay, but I understand the point. Would be nice if ALL the lights turned off with the key, I killed my battery too many times forgetting I lefty my lights on. I might notice more if when I got out of the car my headlights were still on. I think every time I did that is when I was driving in the rain during the day and forgot I turned the lights on.
I have the acc switch paired with that 10 second timer thingy that keeps the windows working until you open the door or 01 seconds, so that my radio keeps working while I finish getting out of the car, unfortunately this also kills the chime that tells you you left the lights on.

 

[Hertz]

What chime?

 

[Terry Posten]

There is no chime. I wish there was. My gauges have smoked lenses and I have to run with the running lights on even in the daylight. I have killed my battery at least 4 times in 2 years. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[kartorium]

Quoting turbowop:
I remember karter's headlights quit on him some years ago. I wonder if that had anything to do with it.



Mine was a melted wire coming off the main fuse block in the harness heading towards the lights. Quite the pita.

 

Quoting gtluke:
Yeah, if you unplug the alarm headlight relay your regular headlight relay stops working.
They COULD Have just let the headlights work with the key off and eliminated this relay, but I understand the point. Would be nice if ALL the lights turned off with the key, I killed my battery too many times forgetting I lefty my lights on. I might notice more if when I got out of the car my headlights were still on. I think every time I did that is when I was driving in the rain during the day and forgot I turned the lights on.
I have the acc switch paired with that 10 second timer thingy that keeps the windows working until you open the door or 01 seconds, so that my radio keeps working while I finish getting out of the car, unfortunately this also kills the chime that tells you you left the lights on.



wait so how do you kill the chime? and with that, does it still make that really really annoying sound when the key is in and the door is open, or does it kill that too?

 

[atc250r]

Quoting Hertz:
What chime?



Mine has (or had) it too. I ran into the same thing as Luke with the turbo timer. If you leave the lights on, shut the key off, and open the door the buzzer will not sound because the timer is keeping the car running. I didn't do any fancy wiring with mine, just a straight plug and play harness for the TT. Unfortunately the parking lights stay on so you are less likely to notice it.

John

 

[gtluke]

Yeah if you open the door with the keys in the ignition or the lights on there is a chime. It's not as much as a chime as it is an annoying high pitched note.
I wish they could all be 80's Chrysler's that play a sweet chime /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif