98' Outback / Ghost Inside?

Hello folks, I have a problem, perhaps someone could help;

My 98' Outback wagon has the 'winter package'. With this package is a switch next to the outside rear-view mirror adjustment 'joy-stick' located to the far left of the dash-board. What this switch does is de-frosts the outside rear-view mirrors. When you push the switch in a little light on the switch lights up.

A couple of weeks ago I noticed this little light was dimly lit. I push the switch in and it lit up brightly as usual. I thought nothing of it. Sometimes it was lit and sometimes it wasn't.

The other day I am driving down the road and all the door locks started locking and un-locking at the same time. I noticed the door-timer relay was also clicking. Then the locks wouldn't work.

It used to be that with the key out of the ignition one could select to lock or un-lock all the locks by using the switch on either the driver or passenger door. This is not working now. When I take the key out of the ignition all of them lock but then the switches don't work. When I put the key in the ignition to start it, they all lock as soon as the engine starts to turn over. With the key in the "on" position or with the car running all the locks work correctly with both switches. But of course now and then they all start locking and un-locking on their own. This I tell you is very freaky.

So here's the kicker. Now when I de-press the rear-view mirror de-froster button all the doors lock. When pressed again they all open. While this switch is pressed in none of the lock switches work.???

Now I have checked all the fuses. I have a keyless entry box under the dash and the two in-line fuses for it are good. I have never used the key-less entry since I bought the car. I think there silly. Anyhow I not only checked all the fuses to see if they were blown, I also checked them for continuity. This was done to every fuse in the car.

Because none of the fuses are blown and the locks all work, the switches work, I don't think I have a short. I am thinking a relay or who knows what. It would seem a lot easier if the problem was just contained to the door locks but with the de-frost button thrown in I am at a loss.

Any and suggestions would help, meanwhile I am going to start running the multi-meter on everything.... This is a real bummer....

[ evL ]

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Reply to
[ evL ]
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Remove the driverside door panel and look around. Bet you find the source of the problem there.

Reply to
johninKY

Hi! I am an electronics engineer with a fair amount of auto electrical experience. I don't know your skill level (or the skill level of someone who reads this in an archive later), so I will try for a simple explanation.

Here is how I would troubleshoot this:

Run a wire from the black lead of your multimeter to the negative post of your battery (it's important that you do it there and not to any other ground). Put it in the lowest DC voltage range that will display the voltage on the positive post of the battery.

Now start measuring things with the red lead while they are operating. You should see three kind of signal:

The kind that are always within a fraction of a volt of being 0V. Those are "ground".

The kind that are always within a fraction of a volt of being the same as the positive terminal of the battery. Those are "hot".

The kind that change between being within a fraction of a volt of being 0V and being within a fraction of a volt of being the same as the positive terminal of the battery. Those are "switched."

For example, when that little light is dimly lit, it should either have hot on both sides of the light bulb or ground on both sides of the light bulb. (one of each would make it be bright, not dim) The fact that it's dimly lit tells us that the voltage on one side or the other is wrong.

Small changes in these voltages are normal. measure a few things that are working correctly to get a feel for what is normal for your meter and your car. What you are looking for is a place where the voltage doesn't come close enough to making it all the way to hot or ground. Here is what to do if you find one:

GROUND: Let's say you find a ground that is at 2 volts. Follow it back towards the battery or frame. when you find the place where it changes to being a lot closer to 0V, you have found a bad connection - good on one side, bad on the other.

HOT: Same as above, but this time you know that it won't connect to the frame.

SWITCHED: Same as above, but the "bad connection" might be a bad switch or relay.

If you get stuck. take notes of what voltages you see, where you see them, and anything that changes them, and post them here.

I once rented an outback that would honk the horn every time you slammed the door...

Reply to
Guy Macon

Hello Guy and johninKY,

Well I must thank you for taking the time to respond to my post. The both of you have helped me with your suggestions.

Not that I want to, but I am going to start typing...

This morning I got johninKY's post, take off the door panel. I thought, "ya, I should, but later on after work". In warming up the car this morning; yes we still do that this time of year in Montana, I noticed that the de-froster worked on the passengers side mirror but not the drivers side mirror. BINGO! A definite reason to remove the drivers side door panel, thanks johninKY!

So I removed that today after work. Then dove into Guy's suggestion. I noticed nothing odd on the meter. I did notice something odd if the door was closed or open. You now know where I am going... I even noticed something odd when the door was semi-shut. I think I obviously have a problem in the harness running directly between the door and the body. It appears that it is getting smashed, although I still need to dive into that, dinner was ready and I called it a day. But I did get closer to understanding the problem. Some very good points were made by Guy in just simply using a multi-meter so the info was printed and saved for future reference. Thanks Guy!

In summary, when I took off the door panel I had to unplug the two plugs; the one to the window switches and the one to the door switch. After doing so I noticed no problems. I thought hmmm. So without putting the door panel back on I just removed the switches from the panel and plugged them into their respective wires. And ya know what? Everything worked perfectly fine. Until I closed the door. Or closed the door half-way. So obviously something is getting pinched and I am sure to solve the problem with some more "looking into" which I plan to do tomorrow.

Despite my lengthy posts, I'll try to keep you updated. I must say that the response from the both of you has put me closer to finding the problem, and I appreciate it. Who knows how much you've both saved my wallet. I just fired up a site that I am going to start working on and it will be dedicated to trouble-shooting, modifications, and what ever else needs to be there for Subaru's. There is nothing there now but the URL is ::

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and this info will be in there... [ Guy I really dug the multi-meter tip! ] I'll be working on the site for the next couple of months. Thanks!

Cheers! [ evL ]

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Reply to
[ evL ]

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