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[img]kay so

just fixed up my 96 mx3 , on its way to recovery, and all of a sudden my rear defrost stopped working..
dumb question
can someone point me in the correct spot of where the fuse is..
..under the hoood?
or under my dash??


thanks

Mandi[/img]

http://www.mx-3.com/manuals/showimg.php ... /Z-097.gif" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The red circuit at the bottom left of this page. Rear window defroster relay. You will know it because when you get under the dash to look for it you will notice that it will be burnt looking...usually. I've fried a couple.

We need to get you the shop manual for your car. I got one VERY large shop book for mine and WOW i can actually do some work my self. It has been a life saver and a money saver. More money to do cool stuff to my cars. Hey mandi where are you located? (apx)

i guess she isnt coming back?

sorry takes me forever to reply..
and im still on the hunt for it..

weird thing also...
my ebrake light wont go out
...
notsaying it has anything to do with my defrost.. however..
another issue im having lol

anddd
im located in Belleville , Ontario.
Not too many of my cars around here..
which is a good thing.. lol


what about u?
sorry takes me forever to reply..
hectic bein christmas.


thanks everyone:)
Mandi

If it won't go out at all it's likely because the switch under the console where the hand lever is not breaking the circuit when you release the handle. If it goes out when you push down on the handle, it's probably the spring that retracts the handle got weak or the ebrake needs to be adjusted.

It's a one wire circuit so it's pertty simple to diagnose.

Either that or you're low on brake fluid, make sure to check that!

_-Night-Shade-_ wrote:Either that or you're low on brake fluid, make sure to check that!

x2 -good call my european mx3 brethren

tripleMX-3chicMS wrote:We need to get you the shop manual for your car. I got one VERY large shop book for mine and WOW i can actually do some work my self. It has been a life saver and a money saver. More money to do cool stuff to my cars. Hey mandi where are you located? (apx)

Online shop manuals...

http://www.mx-3.com/manuals/

JWMX3 wrote:

_-Night-Shade-_ wrote:Either that or you're low on brake fluid, make sure to check that!

x2 -good call my european mx3 brethren

oh yes online shop manuals very cool very useful. droolz!

One quick note about the shop manuals.. Mandi's car is a 96 and is going to be a OBDII car and the online shop manuals are all for OBDI cars. While there are a lot of similarities there are some major differences as well. Best to watch e-bay for a 96 manual to pop up. Especially the Body & Electrical Troubleshooting manual. Thats where most of the differences are likely to be found.

Tunes67

Mandi's car is a 96 and is going to be a OBDII car and the online shop manuals are all for OBDI cars.

I didn't even know that the 96 manual wasn't there!

Kinda just assumed we had them all...

the mechanical/electrical from obd1 to obd2 is the same for relays and what not. Mine is a 96 v6 obd2 as well and when I order parts I have to tell them its a 95 so I get the right parts. I have replaced a few with no issues. I am gonna try to hunt down the obd2 pinout vs the obd1 pinout for the ecu see if its possible to swap back to a obd1 ecu so I can chip a kl01 ecu with a probinator chip when I swap to a klze once my engine dies on me. If you are having trouble locating the relay mandi have a friend hit the defrost button and get under the dash see if you can hear a clicking noise, you should see the following letters on that relay;
H270 (big letters)
DC12V20A
IMASEN
2G18
as well as a heavy blue/yellow wire going to it if I remember correctly.

the primary reason that the relays burn out to begin with is that there is a 40amp fuse that feeds the circuit to rear defrost, and some other accessories like ign power and radio. The current that is supplied to the relay exceeds what the relay can handle thereby allowing the relay to get overpowered and burnt out. If you get higher than a 20 amp draw on that circuit then it burns out the relay and fuse stays intact. So that leaves 2 options, I put an inline 20 amp fuse there to protect the relay matching the wire gauge soldering and shrink tubing the connections or 2 get a higher current rated relay. I don't recommend replacing that relay with a higher one as it can burn up wiring past the relay going to the rear defroster. Fuses are cheaper than relays so thats how I did it but simply replacing the relay will suffice.