1989 chevy s10 4.3 auto, driving one night , radio on flip the heater to high and bammmmm.?

Question

now i have no headlights, the heater works on the 3 lower settings but not high, no parking lights, the radio is dead, but the brake lights work. and all the fuses in the truck under the dash are good, is there a fuseable link under the hood some where? The local shop wants $95 just to start looking!! thanks for any help you can give....

Answer 1

I'd buy a inexpensive test light and start eliminating each problem systematically.Some older model vehicles do have fusible links these are located by the firewall and if they are bad you will see burnt places.Usually most electrical problems are shorts in the wiring so isolating each component is important.If you have a ohm meter you should check the continuity of the fuses first this will almost always tell you exactly which area is bad.

Answer 2

I have seen this before. The heater speed switch on the dash shorted out, and you will have to replace the switch, any wires that are burned up between the switch, the relay, and the resistor, and finally the fusable link that it took out with it. This is a common problem with the blazer and S-10's that had the real cheap switch in them. They are hard to change as you have to dismantle the dash to get them out, and caution must be used due to they way they are made makes it very easy to break the housing the switch is in right where the control cable for the heat/cool adjustment is. It's very hard to get apart without breaking, and if it melted any of the plastic housing, you may have to replace that too. I did one of these about a year ago, and they are hard to do. It takes a good 3-5 hours to repair the damage done, and its all caused by a switch that can't handle the amps that are pumped into the (tiny joke for a) switch that came in them. I'm supprised there wasn't a recall on these, as they could burn the vehicle to the ground. You may be looking at several hundred dollars for the repair job. This is why they want $95 up front to repair it. You wouldn't believe the vehicles I have repaired, and they never came back to get the car. They just left it with me, and I was out my own money for the parts and lobor. They are just trying to make sure you don't leave it with them, and buy something else to drive. An "89" is getting up there, and not many people will spend that kind of money to have it fixed.
Glad I could help you, Good Luck!!!
Part 2:
When all else fails, you can find the problem by making it smoke!!! Get a heavy gauge wire, run directly to the battery, and contact it with the high on the heater blower motor at the resistor. Have someone inside the vehicle to see where the smoke comes from. Don't set the thing on fire by keeping the wire on there too long, but you can find the short this way, and know right where to look. Or, you can go by what I just told you. The reason I told you this was; I own a "94" S-10 Blazer that has identical switches and circuits, and it did the same thing on us about a year or two ago. It melted some wires up on the firewall that go to the relay, and blew the fuseable link. I removed the dash face, and found the blower switch had melted and shorted out. This switch is just too small, and won't handle the amps. If you do what I do and run the blower on a lower speed it won't do it again. Trace the (+) battery cable to the starter. Now, off this same terminal you will find a big wire that feeds the ignition switch. Follow this wire until you find the cluster of fuseable links. There should be 3 or 4 or them together in the harness. Find the one that is blown as it will look like a burned place on the insulation, and if you run your finger nail along the wire you will find a soft spot. This is your blown link, but if you don't repair the culprit first, replacing the link will only blow again. Go to a parts store such as Auto Zone or NAPA, and they will have the new link you need. I think "IF" you really give it some thought, paying someone else to do the job for you doesn't sound so bad. On the other hand you could be looking at 7-8 hundred dollars for them to do it. You can do what you wish, and I don't even care about the points, but in the end you will see I was right about this. I had the very same thing happen to my (wife's) Blazer, so what more do you need to know?
Good Luck!!!

Answer 3

You might have a bad Headlight switch, that why you have no headlights and park lights. Also the dimmer switch can cause this problem. Did you hit a bad bump? You might have a short some where in the wiring. There is also what they call a circuit breaker in the fuse panel. That's those big silver looking things. Have you check those. They work like a fusible link. Have you checked all the fuses? If you have a Owners manual it will tell you what fuses does what. Some times you multiple circuits on one fuse.

Answer 4

I own an S10 4.3 262 1992 and I believe you may want to try to start with a phillips screw driver and remove the driver/passenger door mirror switch underneath the heater control panel, then you will see 2 more screws... and go on and you'll be surprised that it is simplier than trying to say "dinner is served" and by the way , with all the respect to that 40 year experience mechanic, get a Chilton's manual. I also have lots of problems with my S10 4.3 and I have own 4 of them but I never had problems with my 2.8 liter ones, the 2.5 liter 4 cylinders once driven over water wait about 3 months and your distributor module will go out, just have to be repleced since when it got wet it became rusted within and created resistance until it damaged.

Answer 5

the others might be right, but i would tend to agree very much with your diagnosis of a possible fuseible link being th problem, they are the only part that should afect that many systems, especially if the headlight are effected, as they are far away frome the other problems, and are a "safety" item, so most likely the use a self circut breaker once the power gets to the fuse box, so the probem is early in the wiring right where a fusable link goes. i cant say where the link is, but if you have or can get a chiltons or haynes manual, they should say where every one of them is. hopefully you understand my point.

Answer 6

Your existence isn't over until an virtually 11 365 days previous woman starts raiding your closet to your previous 'skinny' outfits, on an identical time as the three 365 days previous who's observing says "Wow Momma outgrowed her outfits. She's a large woman now." I drove around for hours after that finding for a tree limb solid sufficient to allure to close myself from. i desperate none might desire to be depended on.

Answer 7

i would look behind your radio, heater controls and blower for cut, burned or broken wires, if not i would try replaceing some of your relays, those are located in the same place as the flashers (which is left of the steering colum behind the lower dash panels.) you may have some problems there. if all else fails buy a haynes manual for your truck (at napa or somewhere), there are some good wire diagrams in there for those older chevy trucks

Answer 8

The fuse links are located on the starer motor. Good starting point.I believe your heater switch in the dash is partially broken,and that is why it will not work in high.

Answer 9

check your relays