Oil Buzzer @ ignition * 2 Days -> BIG SHORT, dead 4kq (LONG)

[Luis Felipe Patino]

Dear qlist!

After my '85 4kq was destroyed by a drunk driver
back in '98 I drove other assorted _newer_
vehicles, but none gave me the pleasure that my
old 4kq did. So after my last (expen$ive) vehicle
was also destroyed by a drunk driver, I came back
to my first and true love, and got me an '87 4kcsq
last year, and here I am, back to the list after 4
years (my old address was luis at odf.ucsd.edu).

The level of knowlewdge, ingenuity and, above all,
the desire to help that I have seen and received
here have been amazing and touching; thus, I want
to express my gratitude to you, cool dudes :-)

Now, I humbly ask for your wisdom once again:
decyphering my cryptic subject line, my '87 4kq's
symptoms started with the oil light and buzzer
coming on when I turned the key to the "ON"
position, instead of the usual warning-lights
check and seat-belt "ding-ding" anoying reminder.

Ignoring that as harmless, I would just keep on
turning the key to the "START"	position whence the
car would start and run fine and the oil light and
buzzer would disappear immediately with no
flickering at all once the engine turned. That it
kept starting and running fine despite the odd
change in warning-lights-check at "ON" lluled me
further into complacency that this bug was truly
inocuous. That a couple of times the lights came
on normally further fooled me.

My complacency lasted all of 2 days: coming home
from work at midnight, my gurgling stereo alerted
me first that something very serious was taking
place. Indeed, every light dimmed very rapidly,
because driving the last 5 blocks to my house, in
an uderstandable hurry, caused the police to
follow me for driving with no lights on. Turning
into my street, the turn signal was sloooow, and
the LED voltmeter in the console dim and
red-bottomed, then the car started to sputter.
Fortunately, it made to my driveway, with the cop
*kindly* lighting my path red, white and blue (oh,
the patriotism: where were they when the drunk
drivers hit my other cars??). By then, all lights,
dials and LEDs were dead and the motor sounded
like it was about to quit, so I turned it off,
which I had to, anyway, to keep Officer Nosy at
ease.

After the de-rigueur chat with Smokey, who took 10
minutes to convince himself that all was right, I
turned the key to ON, and the oil light/buzzer
came on, just as before; the headlights,
dash-illumination came on normally bright; the LED
voltmeter bright and showing 12 V; the stereo
normal, too, so I pushed the key further to START,
but the motor cranked too slugishly to kick in,
and the voltage dropped and everything dimmed, so
I quit trying, thinking that the odd bug had just
turned into a major short draining too much
current for the car to run.

I hoped, though, that the short only drained
current with the key at ON, so I left the battery
alone, and went to sleep. True, next morning
battery V was OK, so I hoped rightly. Then I tried
to start the motor again, but it did the same
slugish cranking and voltage dropping, so I got
under the car, and the first thing to catch my eye
were the 2 thin wires hooked to the prongs
sticking out of the starter solenoid facing
towards the front of the car. Both were missing
long sections of insulation, particularly near
their plastic plugs where the wires were green and
falling appart with corrosion. The remaining
insulation is brittle all the way into the harness
that they share with another wire comming from the
bottom of the crankcase where it attaches to a
switch/sensor with a screw through a ring
terminal.

Thus, I suspected that one or both of the wires
hooked to the prongs sticking out of the starter
solenoid were shorting with the latter wire, since
I thought the switch where the latter wire
attaches to be the oil pressure sensor thereby
causing the buzzer/light at ON and now also the
big bad short. From googling through audifans.com
and from my faint memories of replacing my starter
and of my old Bentley manual, I think that the
fatter one of the wires hooked to the solenoid
goes to the ignition switch to get current from
the battery at the START but not at the ON key
position. Therefore, my suspicion might be right.

However, the other, thinner wire hooked to the
solenoid stopped me from cutting open the harness
and pulling/replacing/splicing new wiring, since I
ignore when it gets energized and am unsure of its
purpose/other end. My new Bentley won't arrive
until Friday, so I lack the diagram.

B/C tomorrow is my last chance to work on the 4kq
until next week I humbly request the mighty help
of the qlist.

TIA

Luis

'97 yvehC S10 4x4 pick'em up - destroyed while
_parked_ by hit'n            run DUI#2 in 2001.
$$$$$ and $
'93 Golf GL - nice! gave back to mom in 2000
'85 4ksq - rearended to oblivion in '98 at a light
by DUI#1