Electric problems?

[dhoneybuny]

I have a 1996 GMC Jimmy. I bought her new and have put 127,000 + miles on her. She is a gem. However, for the last 27,000 miles the electric windows have been acting up. The front passenger window will sometimes cause the dome light to flash when it is going up or down, and sometimes the dome light stays on (have had a drained battery from this). The driver window will sometimes "stick" so that is doesn't go all the way up. Not fun when it starts raining. Both problems work themselves out and then start again at random. Now to add insult to injury, her gauges are acting up. Her oil pressure gauge will drop when I'm sitting at a stop light, and pick up again when I accelerate. The temperature gauge will climb past 210 and then drop to 150 (I don't think the temperature could drop that fast if I lived in the Arctic even). I've talked to several mechanics as I don't trust the people at my dealers shop (they screwed me once, and won't get a second chance), and they are all puzzled. I figure it has to be a bad fuse, or relay or something.
Your suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[drdd]

I'm no expert but ...

When's the last time you had your cooling system reverse flushed? It is possible that the sudden changes in the temp gauge can be caused by the system beginning to become clogged. This was the case for my Jimmy. I bought a flush kit at AutoZone and flushed it thoroughly. Problem solved.

I'm not sure about the oil pressure. It should reflect acceleration - this is normal. Just watch it doesn't get too low. First, check your oil dipstick. Are you using the right viscosity oil? It will tell you on the oil cap. Begin to assess wether you may be leaking or burning oil ...

What are the exact oil pressure readings at the stop light and then on acceleration ?? There may be some folks on the forum that can tell you what is within the norm.

[JimmySLS]

yep need oil pressure readings to see if they are within specs...

[dhoneybuny]

Thank you, I will try the flush, and I will get the temp spec's on here Mon. night, if not sooner.

[cordog3x]

sounds like you have a short somewhere, make sure the terminals on your battery are clean. do you roll the pasenger window up with the driver side switch and it dose this? If so that could be your problem.the only thing that i can think of the dome light and the window have in common are the door jam switch. you know when you open the door the dome light comes on. It might of got shorted to the window switch or something. Pull some fuses, check voltage, and see if it fixes your problem.

[drdd]

... might be a little "far off", but this is easy to check ...

check that your door is not sagging ... check the pins and hinges and latches and sleeves and bushings ... if your door does not completely shut due to it being slightly out of line (sagging), your dome light would stay on ... do you get the "door is ajar" continous beep/sound ?

.. this doesn't really address the window problem I realize ...

Originally Posted by dhoneybuny

Thank you, I will try the flush, and I will get the temp spec's on here Mon. night, if not sooner.

[dhoneybuny]

I don't get the door ajar bell, and the doors sit on the hiniges fine. Thanks anyway.

[dhoneybuny]

Thanks, I will try this, I have a feeling a short may be the problem. I will purchase some new fuses (can never tell just by looking if they are good) and see what that does for me.

[dhoneybuny]

That may be it. The dirrecnce between idling and acclerating is 10 (goes from 45 to 55) looks like a bigger leap until you read the numbers. My daughter pointed out that it is 1000 miles past time for an oil change, so I'm going to try that over the weekend.

[94 Jimmy]

Sounds like among other things, a bad ground somewhere. The window switch is a complex mess of connections going to hot (+12) and ground. The dome llight is hot and gets its ground through the door jam switches. If the drivers door uses the same ground point for both the window motor and light, and this ground failed or has become intermittent, it could cause all sorts of unexpected problems.
The window problem could just be old dried up motors. The lube in them dries up and causes the motor to bind and pop the internal overtemp switch. The motor stops when it cools down it works again so you have to inch the window up a little at a time.
Look for bad grounds in and around the drivers door. Also check out Rockauto.com for window motors, good prices.
Let us know what you fine
94

[dhoneybuny]

Thanks for the info. I will let you know what I find.

[Schrade]

94Jimmy made a good call on the bad ground. A blown use can't fix itself, and neither can the problems associated therewith!
A bad ground can cause many unrelated functions to go bad.
The sagging door is common to Blazer's/Jimmy's; and when the proper 'shut door' electrical connection isn't made, the dome light stayin' on is a dead ringer.
Low oil pressure at a stop light is probably low oil - better check that one yesterday!