QuestionQUESTION: Roland,
Thanks for your help on this issue: I drive a 94LHS and recently it has started to do some weird things. I'll be driving and sometimes all the gauges lights will come on and the gauges will jump chimes go off and sometimes even the door locks. The car sometimes recovers and sometimes it will die. I thought this might be related to the crank position sensor but when I pull codes I don't get 11. I do get 35 for the radiator fan and a code 43- something about a peak primary circuit.. I'm not sure what that is, or if will cause the problem I'm having.. Do you have any advice?
ANSWER: Hi Shaun,
It sounds more to me like you have a flakey ignition switch which is cutting out of the run position and then cutting back in. My suggestion would be to remove the lower shroud on the steering column after taking out the tilt lever attaching screw ( shroud screws underside) and then spray some electronic contact cleaner inside the ignition switch body via any cracks or openings that will allow you to insert spray with the straw tip. See if that doesn't end this sort of a gremlin.
The 35 has to do with the circuits that actuates the fan relays (low or high speed relay) so check to see if your fans are responding as needed to temperature readings on the gauge.
The 43 suggests that one of the three primary ignition coils is not responding dynamically correctly when pulsed by the pcm. It could be a wire connector flakey or the coil for a set of plugs is beginning to go. Pull the coil pack plug and measure from the common 12v supply pin to each of the other pins with a digital ohmmeter. The resistance should be 0.45 to 0.65 ohms. The supply pin is the one that if you check on the plug side you will find shows 12v for abour 1 second or so when a helper first turns the ignition switch to the run position. The corresponding pin in the coil pack side is the 'common' against which the other three pins should be measured for ohms. If one of the values is different from spec then it would be suggested to replace the coil pack. The other 3 pins of the plug go to pins 17, 18, 19 of the pcm plug.
Roland
Roland
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Roland,
Well things have taken a turn for the worst.. Now, I can't even get the LHS to start. I got it to fire up and in about two blocks it died.. Took many many attempts to get it to start back up, it did and I drove home. Then I took your advice on the code 43 and replaced the coil pack, even making sure the plugs were in the right port, and the car still wont start. I'm wondering if you might have been onto to something with the ignition switch.. The car will turn over, it just wont start... I did notice that even in the run position, or accessories position, the fuel and temp gauges don't come on like usual. The car turns over, but it seems like there is a fault somewhere. Usually when I put the car in accessories the fuel gauge/temp gauge/radio become active, however I'm only getting the radio... Does this sound like a bad ignition switch to you? Whatever advice you can give I'd be much appreciative of.
AnswerHi Shaun,
Open the end cap of the dash at the driver side and check fuses 17,18,19,20, as well as 6,7,21,22, to verify that they show 12V when compared to ground (any shiney metal body surface nearby) when you have the key in the 'run' position, and in the 'start' position. Those are the ones that you have to have as a test that the ignition switch is working. Absent any of those means a bad switch.
Roland
