'90 Legacy - No dash lights, won't start

[ihavenoidea]

background - my daughter drove to work and parked. later she could not start the car. she said it did make a high pitch sound, prior to turning off the car before she parked it, but could not clarify the type of noise.

the sound is probably a red herring.

the car has not been doing anything strange, so the failure appears to be sudden.

i asked her a few questions and determined the current state:

• key on w/ driver door open gets door beep
  
• key on w/o driver door open no door beep
  
• key on no dash lights
  
• key past on to start no solenoid click
  
  

sounded like a fuse or battery/alternator problem to me so we did the following:

• visual inspection on battery
  
• visual inspection on battery cables and cable ends
  
• battery old - changed it out just in case - no joy
  
• checked all fuses - no joy
  
• checked fuseable link - no joy
  

Check please! Sanity check that is... :lol:

so here's what i think:

it's not the alternator because a fresh battery does nothing (?)

it's not a fuse because, well, they all check out with a meter (wanted to be certain)

it could be the ignition switch (don't know how to remove it)

it could be a relay if there is one that would kill the dash lights and the ignition, but not the door beep (no idea where that would be)

it could be a short somewhere (not to excited about that possibility)

 

so folks, what else could it be?

do the three "could be"s make sense?

anyone replace an ignition switch or main relay (if there is a main relay)?

 

thanks a bunch and feel free to laugh at my expense, i sure am.

[ihavenoidea]

SOLVED

 

the fuseable link was loose on the poles.

i inadvertantly "fixed" it when i put the f.l. back in after testing it.

 

now that is funny. :-D

[GTEASER]

Glad to see its resolved. Admittedly I saw this thread and had nothing that could help.

 

If you are not over there already, go to www.legacycentral.org. It is a 1st gen Legacy only forum with loads of info and a great group of guys that know these cars very well.