A young friend hit a big pothole in her '14 Outback. All dash warning lights lit up, remained on after continued driving. Mechanic had the car for a month. Now:
Seems like a simple short circuit to the fan, but why only one vent blows is a mystery to me.
Thoughts on this? Is hit-bump-electronics-and-HVAC-freakout a thing?
Not really, but it is possible that a mode door got bound up somehow and made the HVAC controller have a meltdown.
Wiring wise the only issue I have seen is the wiring harness likes to chafe through and contact the intake manifold at the rear cylinder on the driver side. This generally manifests as blowing a certain fuse that causes ALL THE THINGS to stop working and the vehicle becomes a flatbed topper.
Single or dual mode air?
If there is airflow when the car is stationary, and the fan off, there is a failure of the blower control module/HVAC control head switching/wiring harness between the two. The air is coming from somewhere, if the car is staionary, the blower is running.
It is expected that increasing road speed will increase airflow through the system- air intake plenum is at the base of the windshield, as speed increases, ram air pressurizes the plenum and increases airflow, fan on or not (Unless the recirc air door is closed- but I've seen recirc air doors blown open by uber high plenum pressures like driving into a huge headwind.)
You have provided inadequate information to make a clear diagnosis or suggest possible faults. What happens when the blower is on, in other mode positions? I am assuming the your comment that the blend (temp) control is acting as expected.
Thanks for the replies.
She says the car has single mode. When she gets back home, I'll ask her to run through the controls more thoroughly.
I think a larger issue is finding her a decent indy. She's 19; "advice" from adults includes "never take your car to an indy," "only take your car to an indy my dad went to 30 years ago but I've never been to," "change the oil every 3,000 miles, regardless of what the manual says," and "every month, check if your oil looks like a milkshake" (I mean, I know it's a Subaru, but c'mon).
In reply to procainestart :
Checking oil level every month is a good thing.
it isn't a 1999 2.5l so it won't OMG HEADGASKETS!!!1 but the FB (FA?) engines seem to only have problems due to failure to keep oil in the engine. They tend to allow a bit of oil past the rings. I did a camshaft actuator and a bunch of guides last month for that very issue. "Engine stumbles but only when oil light on dash is flickering". Well gee. When they get to four quarts low between oil changes, there aren't that many oil changes left in the engine at that rate. Even if it's $3.29 Bob's Mystery Oil at the gas station, it's better than nothing.
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