2001 Legacy L wagon 170K miles (original owner) I first noticed that the digital clock had reset itself about 2 weeks ago. Then yesterday while driving home from work it happened about 4 times over a 20 minute period. One time the speedometer and tach needles dipped but the clock didn't reset (best case), and one time I had to restart the car. (worst case) There hasn't been any work done recently. The battery is about 3 years old. I've checked places where I've experienced wiring problems before (inspected around the engine and where the wiring harness enters each of the doors) and have come up with nothing so far. Any suggestions for next steps?
Are you losing power at all whenever you leave it idling over a long period? Also have check the voltage of battery an alternator? Yia
I idled it just now for 5 minutes from a cold start without any issues. Voltage measured from the battery terminals: Cold: 12.55v After 1 min: 14.43v After 5 min: 14.30v
Hmm, I had an issue similar to these way back. If I let it run for 10 mins it'll die. I found my issue to be a light bulb from my dash that was shorting me out. It turned out that whenever I had my e-brake on it was shorting, but when I let go of e-brake it was fine again. You could check there too.
I'm not convinced yet that the problem is truly solved, but...Fleet Farm auto center was open on the 24th and since they were the source of the battery, I took it there. The battery tested bad and the charging system tested good...So $50 later I'm out the door with a battery whose cost was reduced because it was still under warranty. The problem hasn't happened since. We'll just have to wait and see if it comes back. Thanks!
I also had the whole car just kinda shut off real quick then jump back on with my 98OBS. I replaced the battery terminals and that fixed all problems. Good luck.
