QuestionHi Jerry,
I have seen this problem crop up a couple of times, my guages work
intermittantly, warning lights come on when guages stop working, car runs
perfectly otherwise, they are off most of the time but and may only flick on
for a few seconds, but can also work for hours or days at a time so I am
thinking there is a bad ground connection somewhere, it has been frosty
lately and pouring water on my windsheild looks like it could have hit where
the bad connection is as that has caused the clocks to work almost peferctly,
could also be a coincidence though...I have poured water on my windsheild
halfway through my journey on a non frosty day and this has brought them
back to life a few minutes later perhaps two out of four times trying this..so
it's kind of strange.
If you have any ideas on this or know of any ground locations in the engine
bay near the windshield that might be linked to the dash your help would be
gratefull...Jay
AnswerJay:
My hands-on familiarity is limited to 1990 and earlier 900's so I can only provide general comments. It sure sounds like an amazing coincidence, that splashing water on the windshield has any effect on the dash board gauge operation. Unless the water were saline, its resistivity is so high as be be essentially a non conductor, at least relative to low voltage automobile circuits. Your theory of a bad ground somewhere, however is reasonable and likely. In such circumstances, instead of trying to hunt it down, what I have done is simply to add my own by finding any black wire in the vicinity of the dashboard [on the earlier SAABS, such a wire can be found by removing the left front loudspeaker from the dashboard]since Saab is quite consistent regarding black and ground. I would then splice into it, and connect the other end to chassis to form a new, supplementary ground.
On another topic, I have known of people throwing hot water on frosty windshields only to have them CRACK! I would be careful!!
Hope this helps,
Jerry
