88z31Silver

Greetings fellow Z lovers!!!!

Three days ago all these components were working fine then all of a sudden they all stopped working at the same time. MORE INFO: Fueses are good. The digital dash works (did the standard Powerbox repair), the power windows work. There is no radio in it at all right now it's empty space the power seats work too. What does not work: None of the climate controls work (no pwer), interior lights, clock and pwr mirrors-

Is there some common switch or fuse, it's odd they all cut out at the same time...


Help?

Again folks I am new to working on cars and using the FSM the wiring diagrms look like greek to me... Any help on this issue would be greatly appreciated

PredatorZ

When a Z all of a sudden looses a chunk of electronics or accessories, most likely a Fusible link has fried, it happens and sometimes they can be stressed and not fail completely then out of the blue they take another surge and poof !
check your fusible link box under the hood, sometimes the wire inside can be burnt thru and the plastic sheath is intact, so check the on a meter !

rogerz

have you even checked the fuses? your question is of the "I tried nothing and it still doesn't work" variety. Do you know where the fuse box is? we help those who help themselves as we are not clairvoyant

88z31Silver

While I am not a mechanic and am new to working on cars, YES I did check the fuses and they are fine. YES I know what a bad fuse looks like too! I am a beginner and am learning but that is pretty basic.

The point of my question is to see if these items share a circuit or junction and to see if this has ever happened to anyone else. From your reply I can see you are trying to help.

FOLKS, have any of you run into this?

zxguy1986

Well, hard to say because you don't say what IS working. By 'HVAC,' do you mean the dash controls for heat/AC are not responding? Or the switches work but the compressor or fan do not engage? Are your dash lights working? How about other interior lights? Everything else electrical is OK? You don't say.

To answer your big question, you have an unusual set of small problems that never happened to me or anyone who ever told me about it...

Square One is... you own an old Z. Like any other '88 Z, its previous owners have had their portion of 24 years to rewire, un-wire, cross-wire and substitute parts wherever they felt like it. To us, your Z is a mystery except where it's just like ours. And you can't really tell us where that is...

Your first step ought to be checking your FSM and checking all the components listed in the posts above. Including their electrical connections. If that doesn't pan out, you get to start taking stuff apart to see where your wiring/harness isn't right. Could be a slipped connector, corroded connector, broken feed.

From what you say, the 'HVAC, mirror controls, dome lights' must have a common circuit point, a place that lets them turn on and off when you tell them to. That's where the problem is. Sounds like you should be able to trace it from your FSM elect diags... with some patience and a colored marker. Start at the mirrors, for example, and trace backwards until you meet a line from the dome lights...and from the dash air controls, etc., etc.

Welcome to Older Zs and How to Maintain Them Without Losing Your Mind (OZHMTWLYM, Inc.) You are now a member! Dues are low and the coffee is free. Please let us know what you find... we are interested in your problem and also need the input.

88z31Silver

I will need loads and loads of coffee that is for sure, Thank you for you help. The digital dash works (did the standard Powerbox repair), the power windows work. There is no radio in it at all right now it's empty space the power seats work too. What does not work: None of the climate controls work (no pwer), interior lights, clock and pwr mirrors

zxguy1986

Don't know anything about digital dash. Am suspicious of your empty radio slot... wires flopping around and powered up whenever the ignition is on. Not good if they meet each other or ground out. Could be those feeds are in trouble's neighborhood.

PredatorZ

so did you check them ?

rogerz

I do remember ,dimly, that the interior lights and power seat were on a fuse that was oddly marked. So check all the fuses if you haven't already. are there empty slots? and like predZ says check the fusible links. do you have a multimeter (VOM). very necessary for this type work. Don't just trusts fuses that look good. ohm them out. You don't need a very expensive vom. a cheapo analog is just fine. don't get sucked into buying a fancy digital meter they can make a newbie headaches. with an analog you see the needle swing you know what is. Never check continuity with more than the one ohm scale and don't trust the buzzer circuit. Put on high megohms and grab the leads you will get a reading which is why you want the one ohm scale of at least the lowest that the meter is capable of.