velle68

Having a problem with my ’02 SS. The BCM is clicking every 10 seconds with the key in Run and Accessory. On top of the clicking, I have no interior lights and the electric door locks (by the button or key fob) don’t work. When the BCM clicks, it blows my Courtesy fuse every time. After reading the post here, I looked for a bad solder joint on the BCM board: could not find any; then replaced all the relays on the BCM board: still not fixed. I put my BCM in a buddies ’99 SS, turned the key to run and my BCM clicked in his car, so decided to replace my BCM with a new one. After spending the $180+, the new BCM still clicks. PLEASE HELP. This has been driving me crazy for way too long.

67camaro

iTrader: (28)

How is the battery?

velle68

Battery is fine. Car starts, runs, and charges fine.

BOA279

iTrader: (1)

does it still click after the fuse blows? Sounds like something is shorted. The BCM probably has an over current circuit (resetable fuse) that keeps tripping. Read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resettable_fuse

Take note of this description:

"If too much current is passed through the device, the "trip current", the device will begin to heat. As the device heats the polymer will expand, changing from a crystalline into an amorphous state. The expansion separates the carbon particles and breaks the conductive pathways, causing the resistance of the device to increase."

and

"When the power and fault are removed, the PPTC device will cool. As the device cools, it regains its original crystalline structure and returns to a low resistance state where it can hold the current as specified for the device. This cooling usually takes a few seconds, though a tripped device will retain a slightly higher resistance for hours, slowly approaching the initial resistance value."

I will take a look at the schematic when I get home and see if I can help you out but for now your best bet is to start pulling fuses related to the BCM until you find the one that stops the clicking. At least then you'll know what system your faults in and can better isolate it. I would have to guess its something to do with your interior lights...if the fuse is blowing something is shorted or the wrong light bulbs are installed. The BCM is only trying to protect itself from similar distruction by clicking at you...

EDIT: If its still clicking with the fuse blown check for a shorted wire between the BCM and fuse recepticle. Technically this would cause the wire to blow before the fuse would but stranger things have happened

velle68

I don’t believe that there is a short between the fuse block and the BCM, because the fuse would blow once I put it in. It blows when the BCM clicks. The BCM only clicks when the key is in run or accessory. So everything works fine (lights and doors) until I turn the key, then the click starts, the fuse blows and the lights and doors stop working.

Esoteric[TG]

velle68, Did you ever figure your problem out? My car has just started doing the same thing.

TIA,
David.

braveplayer3160

iTrader: (11)

Just wanted to update this thread with a solution as I had the same problem and fixed it today.

If your BCM is clicking every ten or so seconds take a piece of solder or make a jumper wire and jump the orange wire on the black connector over to the red wire on the same connector. Then reconnect the battery and turn the car on accessory and see if the clicking has stopped. If it has then your problem is USUALLY with the power wire (orange one) that is feeding the BCM from the fuse box. From what I can tell the clicking is simply a byproduct of the the BCM seeing no input voltage from the orange wire.

If the above worked you have a short in the power wire that feeds the BCM power for the interior lighting/door locks on the courtesy fuse circuit. If you remove your fuse box from its mounting position in the dash you will see that there is an orange wire that leads from the fuse box to the black connector on the BCM in the passengers footwell. My problem was that I had a fuse that DID NOT pop which allowed the wire to heat up and melt the casing on the organge wire which shorted it out. That is the reason the the courtesy fuse would keep popping when I would replace it on the fuse box. It just kept shorting out and blowing.

So, now that we know the problem how do we fix it??? What I chose to do is probably the more radical fix but it was something that I am comfortable with. Basically I removed the dash out of the vehicle and then pulled the orange wire out of the loom and replaced it with the same gauge and made sure there were no other damaged wires in the loom at that time. I soldered and heat shrunk the splices and placed the wire back in the loom and put everything back together and all was well.

Now, there are a few things to keep in mind here. With a short like the one that I had experienced it is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY to check all the wiring on the circuit to make sure that there are no other wires that have shorted and will not cause you problems right away or down the road. I was able to check all of the wiring on the courtesy circuit with a good test light, Multimeter, and was able to confirm that there were no other shorts in the system.

Now, I looked on here and I know others might not be comfortable or able to remove the dash on their car so (Only if 100% necessary) there is another fix that is much simpler but this will only work if your issue is like mine above with the short of the orange wire on the BCM power input to the courtesy circuit.

If your situation is like that above you can simply cut the orange wire that leads the the BCM from the fuse box and use an add-a-fuse with the correct gauge wire (I think 12) and the correct amperage fuse (30) and tap into the red 12v constant that feeds the same black plug into the BCM and your problem will be fixed 100%.

If you do this PLEASE be smart and add the fuse and make the circuit have a failure point that is preventative in nature so that you do not damage your car or start a fire. Goodluck and happy modding.