My brother’s first car was a 1989 Dodge Colt. He couldn’t run heat, wipers, and headlights at the same time. So driving at night, in the winter, when it was raining, became this dance of running the wipers until your ass was almost frozen to the seat, then turning them off and running the heat until you were almost blind, then repeat.
I would guess that would have had vacuum powered wipers. And the heat comes from the engine - was the blower motor really struggling that bad with the headlights on? I don’t mean to sound skeptical, but this is really surprising to me!
Vacuum wipers in 1989? 59 maybe. Sounds like the alternator output was too weak to keep up with the electrical demand of headlights, blower, and wipers.
My first brand-new car was a '90 Nissan Sentra, back when Sentras were the absolute bottom of Nissan’s product line. It had AC but the car basically couldn’t accelerate with it on unless I was going downhill. Unfortunately I lived in Florida (no hills) so I drove around with no AC. In Florida. This was bad enough but also the windows were hand-cranked so I just left them down all the time. That car was a soggy mess and I kept getting shit stolen.
My brother’s first car was a 1989 Dodge Colt. He couldn’t run heat, wipers, and headlights at the same time. So driving at night, in the winter, when it was raining, became this dance of running the wipers until your ass was almost frozen to the seat, then turning them off and running the heat until you were almost blind, then repeat.
I would guess that would have had vacuum powered wipers. And the heat comes from the engine - was the blower motor really struggling that bad with the headlights on? I don’t mean to sound skeptical, but this is really surprising to me!
Vacuum wipers in 1989? 59 maybe. Sounds like the alternator output was too weak to keep up with the electrical demand of headlights, blower, and wipers.
I would also like to autopsy this car.
I have no idea. He was also like, the third owner, so it’s quite possible that things were failing.
My first brand-new car was a '90 Nissan Sentra, back when Sentras were the absolute bottom of Nissan’s product line. It had AC but the car basically couldn’t accelerate with it on unless I was going downhill. Unfortunately I lived in Florida (no hills) so I drove around with no AC. In Florida. This was bad enough but also the windows were hand-cranked so I just left them down all the time. That car was a soggy mess and I kept getting shit stolen.
What would happen if you ran them all?
Blown fuse or just all of them ran like crap/stuttery?
Just ran like crap. Headlights too dim to see, etc.