Ok... not to long ago i made a thread about the THEFT SYSTEM light coming on and not letting the car run... well i guess this is still partially the same thing... but im gunna start a new thread anyways...
Car is a 97 Sunfire Sedan 2.2L 5 speed...
Heres the story... i took the car to the dealer... they looked at it and did every recall imaginable and told me that the problem was either in the wiring to the instrument cluster... or the instrument cluster itself...
Now heres whats happening... (knocks on wood) the car starts every time now... sometimes with the THEFT SYSTEM light on sometimes without... but if i let it idle a bit sometimes randomly the brake light will flicker (with the e-brake on)... and sometime the BRAKE, ABS, AIR BAG and SEATBELT lights will all come on... and sometimes the gauges themselves will drop off... then come back up... but the lights all go off if i turn the steering wheel or bush the brake pedal... this also sometimes happens when im driving too... but heres where it kinda gets weird... if i put the rear defrost on... the BRAKE, ABS AIR BAG and SEATBELT lights will all come on... and if i turn it off they will go off... so basically im confused here...
Has anyone had these problems before... i plan on checking the wiring to the cluster when i get a chance... anyone know exactly what i should look for other then breaks in the wires and melted wires and stuff?... anyone ever run into a similar problem?...
Any help would be great... thanks!
It sounds more like a problem in the Wiring. not the cluster. i would check your wiring from the cluster all the way down to the left hand floor plug. and maybe through the firewall. the wiring on my car rubbed through on the left front "frame rail" if you wanna call it that. right before the Main harness plug at the firewall. that caused my car to miscellaneously misfire and sometimes stall and not start again. i replaced the harness in my car due to other reasons and thats how i found my problem. good luck and i hope you find the problem
I would track your grounds down and check to see if they are corroded or loose. You have way too may systems and switches involved to point fingers at each as its own problem. If you have any moisture on or under the carpet check the grounds under the drivers and passenger seat for starters.
Your going to need some wiring diagrams, find the exact ground for the defrosters and while its screwing up, ground it with a known good ground and see if it fixes the problem that it caused by turning it on. Do this through out the car trying to add grounds or powers to the affected circuit and see if you can get the symptom to stop. This is very time consuming but the only way to find out what exactly is causing it.
01 cav w/01 3400 gam gt 4t45e
thanks alot guys for the ideas... im gunna probably tear into it next weekend when im not working... i did have a pretty good puddle of water in my drivers side floor not to long ago... definitely gunna start checking some grounds... thanks again
I'd lay money it's the ground strap from the battery post to the tray. There is a b.s connection there that always melts and lets go eventually, causing the car to go haywire. A bad ground at the battery can really cripple a car and cause all sorts of issues.
Check that wire, it's only like 10 gauge or so and really, it's not enough. I ran a 2 gauge wire with 2 ring terminals from the battery post to the tray 4 years ago, and haven't had a problem ever since. before that I went through stock GM ground straps as they slowly failed.
-Chris-
-Sweetness-
-Turbocharged-
Slowly but surely may some day win this race...
well i checked all the grounds from the battery... and they all look fine... used a test light and there all pretty strong... so i donno... i also figured out today... no lights or gauges will jump if i have the headlights on... all fuses are good to.. im at a loss here
I replaced my battery not too long ago, along with the negative terminal wire. I grounded it at the engine block, but not at the battery tray (I forgot about it).
My gauges were going up and down, the speedo would get stuck... just every light came on at one point or another (mostly theft system, check gages, and the air bag one), along with the odometer saying error. Towards the end, before I figured out what was wrong, all the lights were off (minus the air bag one) and none of the gages worked. My radio also wouldn't turn off.
When I realized that I forgot to hook up the ground to the battery tray, and go under the hood to do it... the craziness stopped and everything went back to normal. So in my case, which sounds a lot like yours... it was a lack of a grounding path. So maybe one of your wires is corroded or something.
