funky elelec problem (gauges jumping all over, blowing gauge fuse)
08-17-2005, 04:43 PM
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funky elelec problem (gauges jumping all over, blowing gauge fuse) this is a hella long post. all apologies.
i have no idea whats going on.
i took a road trip this weekend to wisconsin, stopped at a gas station and filled up, headed back on the road and looked at my gauges, they were all dead.
i pulled over, shut the car off, tried to restart it again and nothing. i checked the fuses and sure enough the gauge fuse (#9 if i recall correct) was blown. i put another fuse in and it started right up. i figured maybe the fuse was weak or old and didnt think much about it.
about 75 miles later i get on it going onto an on ramp. i was looking at the tach while shifting and on the 1-2 shift right at redline the tach jumped a little and the guages went dead again. i pulled over, swapped in a slightly higher rated fuse and took off again. i got on it to see if i could reproduce the problem and sure enough, gauges skip around on the 1-2 shift and the fuse blows...
i put in another fuse, tried it again and the guages skip around a tad but the fuse does not blow. the rest of the trip i took it easy on the car (running out of fuses) and a couple more times the fuse would blow during normal driving.
anyway, now the problem has escalated dramatically. the fuse will still blow at what seems to be random instances and now my gauges jump around like crazy all the time. it is somehow affected by impacts, as bumps in the road and whatnot will cause the gauges to jump. whats odd is it seems more sensitive to the rear wheels hitting bumps and jarring the car than the front.
does anybody have any idea where i should start looking for a bad ground or a short? it has to be something like that, i just have no idea what grounds would be responsible. theres a ground strap by the alternator that goes from the block to the engine bay, that one is fine, the ground on the back of the driver side head is fine but i dont know where it grounds to on the chassis. i've looked under the dash, but wow man, i have no idea where to look...
i do have an aftermarket alternator and a yellow top battery, the terminals are all tight and non-corroded but all the same unless somebody has an idea of whats wrong i am going to swap out the alternator and see if that fixes it and if not i'll swap out the battery for the original. i just dont know if a bad alternator would be affected by impacts. the little red wire coming from the alternator, the reference wire is secure and i cant see or feel any damage to it, but its sure a dainty thing...
sorry for the long read, i just wanted to give alot of details.
any advice would be much appreciated.
i have no idea whats going on.
i took a road trip this weekend to wisconsin, stopped at a gas station and filled up, headed back on the road and looked at my gauges, they were all dead.
i pulled over, shut the car off, tried to restart it again and nothing. i checked the fuses and sure enough the gauge fuse (#9 if i recall correct) was blown. i put another fuse in and it started right up. i figured maybe the fuse was weak or old and didnt think much about it.
about 75 miles later i get on it going onto an on ramp. i was looking at the tach while shifting and on the 1-2 shift right at redline the tach jumped a little and the guages went dead again. i pulled over, swapped in a slightly higher rated fuse and took off again. i got on it to see if i could reproduce the problem and sure enough, gauges skip around on the 1-2 shift and the fuse blows...
i put in another fuse, tried it again and the guages skip around a tad but the fuse does not blow. the rest of the trip i took it easy on the car (running out of fuses) and a couple more times the fuse would blow during normal driving.
anyway, now the problem has escalated dramatically. the fuse will still blow at what seems to be random instances and now my gauges jump around like crazy all the time. it is somehow affected by impacts, as bumps in the road and whatnot will cause the gauges to jump. whats odd is it seems more sensitive to the rear wheels hitting bumps and jarring the car than the front.
does anybody have any idea where i should start looking for a bad ground or a short? it has to be something like that, i just have no idea what grounds would be responsible. theres a ground strap by the alternator that goes from the block to the engine bay, that one is fine, the ground on the back of the driver side head is fine but i dont know where it grounds to on the chassis. i've looked under the dash, but wow man, i have no idea where to look...
i do have an aftermarket alternator and a yellow top battery, the terminals are all tight and non-corroded but all the same unless somebody has an idea of whats wrong i am going to swap out the alternator and see if that fixes it and if not i'll swap out the battery for the original. i just dont know if a bad alternator would be affected by impacts. the little red wire coming from the alternator, the reference wire is secure and i cant see or feel any damage to it, but its sure a dainty thing...
sorry for the long read, i just wanted to give alot of details.
any advice would be much appreciated.
08-17-2005, 07:16 PM
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ttt
i know this is one of 'those' posts...
but honestly if anybody could just clue me in on where to look for bad grounds/shorts it would help me out a ton. i dont want to take it into a dealer without knowing a little bit about what may be wrong.
i know this is one of 'those' posts...
but honestly if anybody could just clue me in on where to look for bad grounds/shorts it would help me out a ton. i dont want to take it into a dealer without knowing a little bit about what may be wrong.
08-19-2005, 09:47 AM
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so after pretty much tearing the car apart i found the problem...
even tho nobody showed any interest in the thread i figure it would be nice to post what was wrong so some other person with a similar problem might benifit. (i must have searched 50 threads with keywords that were similar to my problem...)
anyway, the loom going to center console (airbag, tcs, cig and acc plugs) had rubbed against the metal brace that the console bolts to under the dash and was shorting out the pink wire going to the tcs switch. it looks like it may be a potential problem on other cars as well since that pink wire is for whatever reason routed outside the rest of the wiring.
i fixed that and no more fuse blowing or erratic guage readings.
even tho nobody showed any interest in the thread i figure it would be nice to post what was wrong so some other person with a similar problem might benifit. (i must have searched 50 threads with keywords that were similar to my problem...)
anyway, the loom going to center console (airbag, tcs, cig and acc plugs) had rubbed against the metal brace that the console bolts to under the dash and was shorting out the pink wire going to the tcs switch. it looks like it may be a potential problem on other cars as well since that pink wire is for whatever reason routed outside the rest of the wiring.
i fixed that and no more fuse blowing or erratic guage readings.
10-15-2005, 11:04 PM
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Well I am having the exact same problem. I would like to know in detail what you did to find the problem and where it is located. Sent you a PM also. Thanks for posting your fix, you information I think has helped me.
Grant
Grant
10-24-2005, 12:18 AM
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thank you for this thread! if it werent for this i would still be up a creek. this happened to me today and i was lost. 
read this and found the problem. mine was a small aluminum bracket that had come unglued from the floor and made contact with the acc plug and shorted. thanks again. 
read this and found the problem. mine was a small aluminum bracket that had come unglued from the floor and made contact with the acc plug and shorted. thanks again.
10-27-2005, 10:12 PM
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good to know this has helped some of ya.
before i found the short, i disconnected all my aftermarket stereo stuff, pulled out all the fuses (even tho the guage fuse was the one blowing...), swapped batteries, swapped alternators, loosened up and checked the under-hood fuse blocks for shorts, checked the pcm connection and cleaned it with elec cleaner and compressed air, checked underneath the entire car for bad wires, pretty much looked at all wiring under hood and under the car.
then i moved on to the interior. i took the guage cluster out and examined all the wires coming from the interior fuse block, then i started tracing those wires...
what i did to actually find the problem was buy 50 10amp fuses and put one in the blowing slot, turn the key on, and then meticulously 'jiggle' areas of the wiring under the dash. i probably went through 35-40 of those fuses. it was hella time consuming...
there were some times that when i turned the key on the fuse would instantly blow. so i'd move all the underdash wiring around a bit until i could get the key to the 'on' position without the fuse blowing, and then repeat the wiggling and jiggling until i found the spot...
the exact spot on my bird was the wiring loom located directly under the cigarette lighter that contains the wiring for the ashtray lamp, airbag box, and tcs switch. there is a pink wire coming from the traction control switch that for some reason not grouped with all the other wires that are located in a plastic loom and was instead outside of it. that wire ended up rubbing against the metal support brace that runs underneath the front part of the console and the same piece the console bolts to.
what helped alot was that the lighting in my garage was crappy at the time when i noticed the spark. you might want to take out your console (have a LOT of fuses at hand...) and turn the lights of and try to see a spark when the fuse blows.
good luck. i hope this helps you find the problem. before you do anything i would check under the dash in areas where wiring is in direct contact with metal parts, and again good luck.
Originally Posted by BlackHawk131
Well I am having the exact same problem. I would like to know in detail what you did to find the problem and where it is located. Sent you a PM also. Thanks for posting your fix, you information I think has helped me.
Grant
Grant
then i moved on to the interior. i took the guage cluster out and examined all the wires coming from the interior fuse block, then i started tracing those wires...
what i did to actually find the problem was buy 50 10amp fuses and put one in the blowing slot, turn the key on, and then meticulously 'jiggle' areas of the wiring under the dash. i probably went through 35-40 of those fuses. it was hella time consuming...
there were some times that when i turned the key on the fuse would instantly blow. so i'd move all the underdash wiring around a bit until i could get the key to the 'on' position without the fuse blowing, and then repeat the wiggling and jiggling until i found the spot...
the exact spot on my bird was the wiring loom located directly under the cigarette lighter that contains the wiring for the ashtray lamp, airbag box, and tcs switch. there is a pink wire coming from the traction control switch that for some reason not grouped with all the other wires that are located in a plastic loom and was instead outside of it. that wire ended up rubbing against the metal support brace that runs underneath the front part of the console and the same piece the console bolts to.
what helped alot was that the lighting in my garage was crappy at the time when i noticed the spark. you might want to take out your console (have a LOT of fuses at hand...) and turn the lights of and try to see a spark when the fuse blows.
good luck. i hope this helps you find the problem. before you do anything i would check under the dash in areas where wiring is in direct contact with metal parts, and again good luck.
10-27-2005, 10:35 PM
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yep had the same problem when i bought the car. I had the warranty at the time and they told me it was a short to ground in the wire harness. Im going to make a best guess that it was in the same area as the rest of you (since i didnt fix it i dont know where the short was but it definately took out all my gagues)
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10-27-2005, 11:07 PM
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sorry this is a little late in the game. i learned from a tech guy at painless that if your blowing fuses its a short in the wire (or in my case the switch) if something just doesn't work then you look at the grounds (or in another case, i hadn't hooked the wire up, doah!) this advice has helped me a lot
10-28-2005, 03:51 PM
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This link talks about my problem. A blue wire going to this module was burnt causing me to blow fuses. After findign the problem and taping the wire the fuse problem was gone but my left turn signal was acting up. The box that the wire went to had a blown trace, so I had to solder a wire to fix the problem.
https://ls1tech.com/forums/general-maintenance-repairs/326530-turn-signals-not-working.html
https://ls1tech.com/forums/general-maintenance-repairs/326530-turn-signals-not-working.html
11-06-2005, 07:02 PM
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badhoopty i feel u because i posted a question and no one ever wrote back. but thanks for posting up ur problem it will help out others w/ similiar problems.my problem is that my interior lights dont work at all.any advice already check all fuses
11-06-2005, 08:43 PM
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get someone who can read diagrams and get you gm manuals from :
You will need to select your year model, but these are very helpful.
Pontiac
http://www.helminc.com/helm/product2...8214T7NFDHBKPD
or
Camaro
http://www.helminc.com/helm/product2...8214T7NFDHBKPD
You will need to select your year model, but these are very helpful.
Pontiac
http://www.helminc.com/helm/product2...8214T7NFDHBKPD
or
Camaro
http://www.helminc.com/helm/product2...8214T7NFDHBKPD
01-20-2019, 08:41 PM
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good to know this has helped some of ya.
before i found the short, i disconnected all my aftermarket stereo stuff, pulled out all the fuses (even tho the guage fuse was the one blowing...), swapped batteries, swapped alternators, loosened up and checked the under-hood fuse blocks for shorts, checked the pcm connection and cleaned it with elec cleaner and compressed air, checked underneath the entire car for bad wires, pretty much looked at all wiring under hood and under the car.
then i moved on to the interior. i took the guage cluster out and examined all the wires coming from the interior fuse block, then i started tracing those wires...
what i did to actually find the problem was buy 50 10amp fuses and put one in the blowing slot, turn the key on, and then meticulously 'jiggle' areas of the wiring under the dash. i probably went through 35-40 of those fuses. it was hella time consuming...
there were some times that when i turned the key on the fuse would instantly blow. so i'd move all the underdash wiring around a bit until i could get the key to the 'on' position without the fuse blowing, and then repeat the wiggling and jiggling until i found the spot...
the exact spot on my bird was the wiring loom located directly under the cigarette lighter that contains the wiring for the ashtray lamp, airbag box, and tcs switch. there is a pink wire coming from the traction control switch that for some reason not grouped with all the other wires that are located in a plastic loom and was instead outside of it. that wire ended up rubbing against the metal support brace that runs underneath the front part of the console and the same piece the console bolts to.
what helped alot was that the lighting in my garage was crappy at the time when i noticed the spark. you might want to take out your console (have a LOT of fuses at hand...) and turn the lights of and try to see a spark when the fuse blows.
good luck. i hope this helps you find the problem. before you do anything i would check under the dash in areas where wiring is in direct contact with metal parts, and again good luck.
before i found the short, i disconnected all my aftermarket stereo stuff, pulled out all the fuses (even tho the guage fuse was the one blowing...), swapped batteries, swapped alternators, loosened up and checked the under-hood fuse blocks for shorts, checked the pcm connection and cleaned it with elec cleaner and compressed air, checked underneath the entire car for bad wires, pretty much looked at all wiring under hood and under the car.
then i moved on to the interior. i took the guage cluster out and examined all the wires coming from the interior fuse block, then i started tracing those wires...
what i did to actually find the problem was buy 50 10amp fuses and put one in the blowing slot, turn the key on, and then meticulously 'jiggle' areas of the wiring under the dash. i probably went through 35-40 of those fuses. it was hella time consuming...
there were some times that when i turned the key on the fuse would instantly blow. so i'd move all the underdash wiring around a bit until i could get the key to the 'on' position without the fuse blowing, and then repeat the wiggling and jiggling until i found the spot...
the exact spot on my bird was the wiring loom located directly under the cigarette lighter that contains the wiring for the ashtray lamp, airbag box, and tcs switch. there is a pink wire coming from the traction control switch that for some reason not grouped with all the other wires that are located in a plastic loom and was instead outside of it. that wire ended up rubbing against the metal support brace that runs underneath the front part of the console and the same piece the console bolts to.
what helped alot was that the lighting in my garage was crappy at the time when i noticed the spark. you might want to take out your console (have a LOT of fuses at hand...) and turn the lights of and try to see a spark when the fuse blows.
good luck. i hope this helps you find the problem. before you do anything i would check under the dash in areas where wiring is in direct contact with metal parts, and again good luck.
Long story short, fixed it right up.
Thank you man!
