%$^&@# car won't turn over -effectively DEAD!

elkaboom · Post by **elkaboom** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 12:33 am

Okay, so I went to the local pick and pull for an alternator rubber boot thingy (where the ground wires connect to the alternator housing) because mine was mostly gone/torn off.
Anyway, right before I pulled what was left of the old boot off, my ratchet slid off the plastic coilpack/intake manifold cover and hit the exposed bolt and made a nice big spark -no big deal right? Wrong!
At the time I thought nothing off it, I quickly disconnected the negative terminal and went back to work. Well, I put everything back together and now the mf'ing car is dead. The only thing that works is the seatbelt alarm. The car won't crank, no accesories will work, no horn, no lights, no automatic seatbelt tensioner, nothing. All of the fuses are good, bith under the hood and inside the driver side fuse box, nothing smells like it got fried, nothing melted, nada. The damn car is just dead.
Does anyone have any idea what I might have done? Any ideas?
I'm basically f'd here because this is my only car and not only was I supposed to take it in for some work tomorrow morning, but now I'm essentially strandedout in the middle of nowhere. HELP!

mTk · Post by **mTk** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 12:46 am

Not 100% sure, but did you check the fusible link under the hood? Never seen one blown, so i'm not sure if it would look damaged on a visual inspection.

MK

ciper · Post by **ciper** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 1:14 am

I had a bad one and it looked fine. If I twisted it sometimes it would make sparks.

Pull them all out and check for infinite resistance.

elkaboom · Post by **elkaboom** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 1:16 am

Yup. Did a visual inspection of all the fuse's and the fuseable link. The FL looks fine. Again, there isn't any hint of burning or anything.
This is freakin' bad.
If it matters, I have a Python remote starter (which I'm beggining to suspect may be the culprit), but I'm absolutely clueless as to how to disable it. Underneath the dash is a veritable maze of wires and wire harnesses, wires with fuses attached, etc, etc. The starter was professionally installed, but I have no idea where and there are no instructions. I can start the car with the remote, but that's all.
I can't believe this... for one thing I'm broke, and for another it'll probably cost a small fortune to have this pos towed to a shop where it'll have to be combed over for a solution. Arggghhhhh!!!!!!!

ciper · Post by **ciper** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 1:22 am

The car starts when you use the remote starter?

Are the fuse links on our cars the soft wire type?

elkaboom · Post by **elkaboom** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 1:42 am

No. The car won't start period. The only response I can get from the car is the seatbelt alarm when the keys are in the ignition. Other than that, that's all the car will do.
The fuseable link on my car is just a heavy gauge piece of wire with connector pins on either end bridging two fuse slots, and it looks fine. I wiggeld it a bit, with and without the battery connected and nothing happened.
Why would the seatbelt alarm work while nothing else would though, that's my question atm. I'm beggining to think I fried something in the remote starter electronics or something. Keep in mind I know absolutely nothing about electrical systems -I can barely hook up a car stereo

I'm so pissed right now I'm ready to blow the damn car up... how could the damn ratchet hitting the negative ground short the fricking car's electrical system like that. Oh well, Subarus never fail to surprise me.

mTk · Post by **mTk** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 1:47 am

The part w/ the rubber boot is where the positive battery cable connects to the alternator.

MK

ciper · Post by **ciper** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 1:54 am

Dont focus on the starter.

Do the headlights come on? Dash lights?

It may be the ultra simple problem of a dead battery!

evolutionmovement · Post by **evolutionmovement** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 1:56 am

I wonder if you killed the ECU. Its one of the reasons to disconnect the negative battery lead before working on the electrical system. Not that I usually do myself...

Steve

elkaboom · Post by **elkaboom** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 2:00 am

Not sure what you're refering to mTK...

On the alternator, there is a plug in connector and then there is a little post with two wires that are bound together which bolt onto the alternator housing covered by a black rubber boot. The wiring harness that contains those two wires runs along the length of the alternator behind the A/C compressor behind the battery, underneath the engine compartment fuse box, and into the driver side fender -after that I'm not exactely sure where it goes. My ratchet slid into the post where the two wires I mention, are normally covered by a rubber boot. I'm assuming the the wires I mention are ground wires.

elkaboom · Post by **elkaboom** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 2:04 am

Ciper: nope. No lights of any shape, size or function. Again, NOTHING works. Period. With the exception of the seatbelt alarm. That little "beep... beep...beep" is the single working feature on the entire car atm.

elkaboom · Post by **elkaboom** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 2:06 am

Incidently, the car was running perfectly 2 1/2 hours ago.

elkaboom · Post by **elkaboom** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 6:29 am

Well, not only am I infuriated, but I'm totally disgusted by this goddamn car atm. Any car that could completely just cease to function like this is beyond me. I'm generally pretty freakin' impressed by Subaru's but this is really shaking my faith in them. Glass jaw, Achilles heel? it would definitely seem that any vehicle who's electrical system could get fried by such a trivial thing is a total p.o.s.

Maybe it's time to buy a Honda....

Bosco · Post by **Bosco** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 7:09 am

Now Now.... Don't be Hasty...

I doubt you've completely destroyed the car.

So you messed up..... Take a few breaths...

I doubt It's the Subaru's fault. It's the Victim here too.

Don't just run off to the Honda dealership yet.
How about calling the People who installed your remote start?

evolutionmovement · Post by **evolutionmovement** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 7:25 am

Any cars' ECU can be fried in this manner if that's what actually happened. If you don't want the worry you'll have to go to something with carburetion and a distributor.

Steve

mTk · Post by **mTk** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 7:29 am

It's intuitive that if your ratchet hit the post w/ the two wires and hit a ground, then sparked, that the post is a positive terminal.

My vote is still a blown fuse/link. You should get a voltmeter and actually test each fuse.

MK

evolutionmovement · Post by **evolutionmovement** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 7:58 am

Its always a good idea to check with a meter as I've had fuses that looked perfect from the outside but are non functional. Learned that the hard way after much aggravation with an industrial CNC PCB router.

Steve

vrg3 · Post by **vrg3** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 5:04 pm

Those two white wires carry the charge current, and connect to the positive terminal of the battery through the fusible link. They're not ground!

Since you shorted them to ground with your ratchet, it's very likely you blew the fusible link.

The fusible link also feeds SBFs 1 through 3, which are responsible for such things as engine management.

elkaboom · Post by **elkaboom** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 8:12 pm

Alright, I had a chance to sleep off some of my aggravation and doing some rough physical labor at work today. I'm considerably more calm atm, I will therefore, officialy retract my statement regarding purchasing a Honda -for now...
I also take full resposibility for foolishly thinking the wires that threw sparks were grounds -it does stand to reason that if they produced a spark they were probably supplying power. I'm assuming my thinking was cloudy because I was mildy freaking out about how something so trivial could equate to the complete shutdown of my heretofor tank, ergo, my Subaru.
Anyway, I'm going to replace the fuseable link; removing the link produced evidence that it may have "blown" -it came apart in two pieces with almost no coaxing. I dunno if that normal or abnormal, but it almost looks like the copper wire melted together at a couple differnt places, but again, I don't know how it's supposed to look/feel as I never messed with it before.
I wonder if I can artifice something together using the two connecting pieces and the wire covering? I have some copper speaker wire that is nearly identical to the wire used in the FL.
More later...

mTk · Post by **mTk** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 9:39 pm

Great news!

MK

elkaboom · Post by **elkaboom** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 9:49 pm

Well I'll be a dirty old goatf***er! I tested ALL of the fuses in the main fuse box and they all proved viable. It was also refreshing to finally learn how to use a voltmeter

Also, my speculation that the FL was damaged (due to several of you guys coaxing me in that direction) proved to be correct. I replaced the link with some nearly identical wire and the original spade connectors, reinserted the link and voila
Well, it's true what they say: "the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away..". -and then giveth it back, and then taketh it again, ad infinitum.
Thanks for the help.

mTk · Post by **mTk** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 10:21 pm

Awesome, glad we could help.

MK

ciper · Post by **ciper** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 11:24 pm

Replace it with a real fusable link or next time it could be your ECU.

vrg3 · Post by **vrg3** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 9:44 am

Cool, glad you got it fixed.

Like ciper said, replace it with a fusible link ASAFP. A fusible link is not just a piece of wire; it is a piece of wire engineered to melt in a predictable manner at a predetermined current. Running with a piece of wire in there is dangerous.

elkaboom · Post by **elkaboom** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 6:27 pm

Yeah, I hear ya. I'm pretty cautious of leaving that temporary fix in place for any longer than I have to. I plan to head back to the local pick n' pull to cannabalize the FL off the 90 wagon serenly going to glory waaaaay in the back there. I plan on grabbing the ECU and a few other parts that would be good to have in a pinch as well.
Thanks again guys.

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%$^&@# car won't turn over -effectively DEAD!

%$^&@# car won't turn over -effectively DEAD!