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960 960 electrical gremlins

hikerguy

hikerguy

Member
Joined
Dec 3, 2012
Location
Benton PA
My 1995 960 wagon is giving me trouble. It started with a sporadic speedo, dropping out at speed. This problem was temporarily fixed with a good smack on top of the dash but if I wasn't paying attention it went into limp home. 6 months down the road the speedo just stopped altogether and full time limp.

I pulled the cluster and dropped it off with a friend who owns a computer shop. Unfortunately, my 193 mile daily commute didn't stop while the cluster was out. After 3 days I started getting a dead battery. So I parked it for 3 weeks. My buddy couldn't find any problems except for the outside temp sensor is dead. So I reinstalled it and charged the battery.

Now the radio is cutting out and the fuel pump runs all the time no matter what position the key is in except full off. I know its timed to prime the system but not, always on right? Should I be looking for cluster issues or ignition issues or bad ground/diode? In the past I have had no start problems related to park switch but I don't think this is connected.

I love this car and am quite proud of all the miles I've personally put on the car but I'm getting close to putting it out to pasture. So any help here is appreciated.
 
I can't help as I'm not a 9 guy but the fuel pump should definitely not be always on and in fact, if it's running without moving fuel you're going to get pump cavitation and it's going to burn itself out. I might as an abundance of caution move the car to a spot where god forbid... if it caught fire, the property damage would be minimized.
 
it should be dumping the fuel past the pressure regulator back to the tank, but good call on the potential fire hazard time to park it on the steet lol
 
hikerguy said:
My 1995 960 wagon is giving me trouble. It started with a sporadic speedo, dropping out at speed.
Click to expand...
Is a 95 960 LH2.4 or Motronic?

hikerguy said:
...my 193 mile daily commute didn't stop while the cluster was out. After 3 days I started getting a dead battery.
Click to expand...
That's because you need the Alternator warning light (and all the other bulbs that light up with key on but before starting) -- the current that lights up the bulbs comes from the field coil on the alternator and magnetizes it so that the alternator work. No cluster, no bulbs, no current in field coil, no alternator output.

EivlEvo said:
I can't help as I'm not a 9 guy but the fuel pump should definitely not be always on and in fact, if it's running without moving fuel you're going to get pump cavitation and it's going to burn itself out. I might as an abundance of caution move the car to a spot where god forbid... if it caught fire, the property damage would be minimized.
Click to expand...
The fuel pump will just circulate gas as normal, with no additional risk of fire unless you're upside down with a broken fuel line after a crash.
 
I don't know anything about Motronic. If it's easy, I'd pull the console again and see if it goes back to working. If so, look carefully for something shorting out behind the console when console is installed or a mis-connected cable on back of console.
 
It could be a bad ground and the voltage is backfeeding thru the fuel pump relay. Or maybe not.

This could take even a pro a few hours to figure out. I would start with a wiring diagram, or even just start with the fuse panel, and pull fuses one at a time until your fuel pump stops running and then start diagnosing that circuit. You may find an unrelated circuit is causing issues in the fuel pump circuit.

Disconnect the battery while it's parked until you figure it out. Derp.
 
bobxyz said:
That's because you need the Alternator warning light (and all the other bulbs that light up with key on but before starting) -- the current that lights up the bulbs comes from the field coil on the alternator and magnetizes it so that the alternator work. No cluster, no bulbs, no current in field coil, no alternator output.
Click to expand...

the reason for the dead battery

I guess its time to start looking for the green book pdf again.
 
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