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Thread: Interior electronics not functioning

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Posts: 1-10 of 15
2010-05-10 22:20:44
#1
Interior electronics not functioning
The car: '92 SE-R

Here is the problem I've been having, the interior electronics don't always work. The gauges, interior lights, power mirrors, and sunroof will not function when first starting the car. Sometimes they never power on, other times they work after revving the car up to ~4K. Although they haven't worked at all for the past several days. This wouldn't be that bad of an issue thanks to the mechanical speedo, but the turn signals don't work when this happens either.

The only thing I've checked are the fuses, all of which are fine.
2010-05-11 00:11:25
#2
Could be a bad ground I'll post up some alldata info in the am for u
2010-05-11 00:17:10
#3
Thanks man, I just took out the gauges and the panel under the steering wheel. There is a blue wire that is tapped into... just about everything. And I found out that this car apparently used to be an automatic, as there is a TCM next to the clutch pedal. Theres also a few raw wire ends dangling, all are non-factory wires. *sigh*
2010-05-11 00:20:38
#4
Sounds like u got a fun wiring job Ahead of u ... I'll post the info for a automatic then. One wire feeding alot of components will pop a fuse for sure but not if they bumped up the fuse... Check the fuse box over hot spots ... Might find a melting fuse box
2010-05-11 21:05:41
#5
i got some info here for u but its on a pdf file ... send me ur email and ill send it to u
2010-05-12 18:31:01
#6
I can clear that up for you. The blue wire is a replacement power wire for the interior electronics lights (in cluster, console stuff, etc.). The raw wire ends (at least the red/yellow ones) are the ends of the original power wire. Somehow, somewhere in the car, the original wire was shorting, and after spending about 3 days with the dash ripped apart, I still couldn't find out what was causing it. I think I may have left some disconnected gauge wires under the dash as well (taped up, not raw), but I can't remember. They would be solid black wire. Your best bet is to just to chase them, they only went a few feet.

To get the lights working again, I disconnected that power wire (red/yellow) where it goes into that system (I believe it is at the light switch) and replaced it with the blue wire (which I do admit I could've run a bit better..). I would have removed the old power wire, but it was bundled deep into the harness throughout the dash.

I'll try to sum it up more clearly. Blue wire comes from where the original power wire connected (at the base of headlight switch), and replaces it. Old power wire is disconnected from power source and components but still in the harness. In response to PR, it is feeding all of the components that the original wire fed, and nothing more. It is still fused properly on the same fuse line and the original grounds remain, simply a wire substitution.

The original reason for the substitution was that that one of the fuses would blow every time I turned on the lights. I can try and give more details if you want. The PDFs in my signature link should contain the wiring diagrams of the dash I used to figure out where the power wire went. It also spiders into the tail lights directly (thanks nissan). It was all a bit mysterious to me, but as far as I could tell either the wire itself was shorted somewhere (causing the fuse to blow when lights were activated), or there was a faulty component which I never found causing the short (but I'm 99% sure I tested them all based on the wiring diagrams). Anyway, the short was after the light switch, and simply replacing the wire from that point on cured the problem. I had always meant to re-wire the car anyways, but hadn't got a chance.

As for the cluster not working, I had that same problem. It might be the relay for the tach causing the cluster functionality issues. I frequently had the tach stick after not driving for weeks, but once it started working again it would generally be fine.

I can explain the dome light, sunroof, mirrors, (and should also be blower motor) working intermittently. It started happening randomly. After wire chasing and testing, I found that the fuse that controls all of that has a bad connection at the bottom of the box. It's not the wire connection to the fuse, but the nesting of the fuse into the metal bracket in the box itself which is faulty. Wiggling the fuse got them to work/not work. It's another thing I wanted to fix but didn't get a chance to (also not sure of the best way to go about it, since I think replacing the fuse box might be a lot of work).

If I remember anything else about the wiring I'll post it up. It sounds convoluted, but actually I really only substituted the power wire and did a poor routing job. Other than that, it's as it was when I got it. I actually had no idea it used to be an automatic... maybe that explains some of its funky issues. Honestly I think the best thing to do for this car would be a re-wiring job with only essential wiring, which is what I really had wanted to do. I think it would clear up a lot. =)
2010-05-12 20:16:35
#7
Thanks Dan! That REALLY helps me, I'll chase the blue wire and make sure that all the connections are still good. What were the solid black wires? I have found two, both of which have raw ends on them, fairly corroded as well. One of them was an added ground right next to the TCM. There were also a couple of raw wires going into the steering column, a purple one I believe.

This problem only developed over the last couple weeks, before then everything worked like it did while you had it.
2010-05-12 21:40:06
#8
IIRC, I had the solid black wires running over the column to the center console when I had a switch for radiator fans, which I later removed. Would've been power and the ground you referred to. I left the wires in case I needed them for power elsewhere I think. It is most likely that they don't connect to anything, but I'd chase them to be sure because for the life of me I can't remember what I did with them. I knew better than to just leave them exposed and wired up, however.

I recall the purple wire you speak of, but I don't think I know what it's from. Probably I assumed it was from something after-market that was no longer present.
2010-05-12 22:40:50
#9
Gotcha. What was the deal with the fan? It doesn't work currently.
2010-05-12 22:48:16
#10
Fan is constantly on with fuel pump now. It's wired to a relay under the hood triggered by fuel pump power. Should be pretty easy to check the wiring/fuse, the relay is in the same box with the rest of them. I switched it over because the stock wiring didn't seem to be working right.
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