This 2002 Buick Century came in with the complaint that all of the power windows do not work. I decided the best place to start was the master power window switch. I used a small screwdriver to depress the locking tab and lifted the front edge of the switch up.
I checked for power supply at the yellow wire, terminal “G”. Power was present with the ignition on.
I used the seat bracket for a ground location for my test light.
Since I knew I had power at terminal “G”, I used it as a power source to check for a ground on terminal “B”. I also used a jumper wire as a means of connection between the clamp on my test light and terminal “G” of the harness connector. No light meant no ground was present.
Normally I would suspect a broken wire in the driver’s door jamb wiring. I pulled the harness boot loose from the body and the door. I saw no problem there.
I looked around to see where the harness connected in the interior and could not see anything. I felt around in the hole in the body and could feel something that resembled a connector. I wiggled and pulled the harness and found this connector.
I flipped the latch and separated the two halves. I you will click on and enlarge the following picture you should notice two damaged terminals in the lower left corner of the connector.
The burn damage on the mating connector.
The blue locking comb had to be removed first.
I did not have the proper terminals to repair this connection. On top of that I am not sure the connector body would have held a new terminal anyways. So I went old school on it. I would normally run new wire through the connector bodies and spliced the wires on either side. Since this is on a moving harness, I checked to make sure my splicing terminals would fit in the connector body and be well insulated. They would. I next used a cordless drill and bits to cut the locking tabs out of the circuit holes. I spliced a new wire onto the door side wire and ran it through the connector bodies.
I repeated the process with the other wire and pulled the splice connections into the connector bodies.
The only way I knew that I could do this was that the separators were not damaged and that would keep the connectors from touching each other.
I fished my two wires through the other connector body.
I then worked on pulling the wires and moving the connector bodies back together, making sure to keep everything properly aligned. It took some effort but it finally went back together and snapped into place.
Then I cut and spliced my two new wires to the old wires that were in the body side connector body. I felt good about putting the splice in this location as there is little if any movement onside the body cavity.
All spliced back together and ready to put back into the body and door cavities.
I connected the switch back to the wiring and turned the key on. Then driver’s power window went straight down without the switch being depressed. I guess that explains what burnt the circuits out.
Terminals “B” and “G” need to be replaced in the main harness connector for the driver’s door switch as well. The customer declined doing that repair at this time. If you were to find yourself needing this connector, it is the same connector that is used for the blower motor resistor. Please click here to see.
What originally happened on this vehicle was that the driver’s power window switch failed and applying constant power and ground to the driver’s power window motor. That overloaded the circuits and burnt the terminals. Had the driver known what to do they could have simply removed the power window circuit breaker and saved all of the wiring headaches. Ignorance sure can be expensive or profitable, depending on your point of view.
