My 03 Outback Sport hatchbk w/ 100Kmi wouldn’t start and had a strong burning electrical smell inside the car. Happened before a year ago after a rain, though that may have nothing to do with it. I jumped it and it was fine for a couple starts then nothing again. Battery is newer. I undid the red cable to battry to rest overnight, hooked it up and started rightup. Now it gets funny.
Mechanic can find nothing, but the radio stopped working on the way to the shop. No melted wires, no blown fuses. Nothing. But after I drove it home, and paid the good shop for their considerable detective work, the door locks failed.
I found a blown fuse labeled clock under the hood. Clock stopped working about 2 years ago. I replaced the clock fuse. Everything worked again…radio, locks, but not clock. Then, hour later, the right turn signals, fr and bk, stuck on. Back to the mechanic. Shop pulled the clock fuse and viola, everything but the clock and radio now works fine. Two questions dear list:
1) Is this dangerous?
2) What is going on?
Thanks.
My guess is they are sharing a ground connection somewhere and that ground connection needs to be cleaned and tightened.I agree with Mr. Meehan, as I usually do. Tracing that bad ground may be time-consuming, but when it is located, that should end your problems.
And if you find that “viola” please let us know, as there is a shortage of musical instruments in my area.
;-))
Thanks Mr. Meehan and VDCdriver. Is tracing ground wires something an inexperienced, non Francophonic, keyboard challenged, person could do? Or had I better pay someone, likely a lot, to trace wires and wires around my car? Obviously, Je ne sais pas ce qui se passe! ;-))
M