2002 Chevrolet Astro Van, Battery Went Dead

2002 Chevrolet Astro Van was referred to me by  two different shops because the battery would go dead quickly and at one of the shops the battery got very hot and the sub harness from the brake proportioning valve switch caught on fire. The battery had been replaced, the master cylinder was replaced and unfortunately the the harness was thrown away. After talking with the customer and both shops in detail and when, it was mention to me about how hot the battery had gotten, I decided to trace the battery cable and look for a major short. It did not take too long to find this one. The next picture shows the short as I found it. It was located at the passenger side of the engine behind the steering linkage.

I pulled the cable out for a better view.

I decided that the cable only had a superficial wound and that it really only needed to be sealed. I rubbed some silicone sealer onto the wound and let it cure out.

The next morning I wrapped it with electrical tape to further seal it.

Tucked it back into the loom.

I rotated the loom so the the split seam was not facing down on the crossmember.

And secured the assembly in place with a couple of wire ties.

Apparently the harness had never been secured to the crossmember and I could not even find a location hole where it should have been fastened. With the cable having been free to move around it had gotten very close to the steering linkage and in particular on a hard left turn the linkage would rub into the cable. I asked the customer if he had ever noticed anything strange while turning and he said some times it would stall and the voltmeter would jump around. Well I guess so!!

2001 Ford Explorer No Stoplights

The customer complaint on this 2001 Ford Explorer was that the lower stoplights did not work. The CHMSL (center high mounted stop light) did work so that indicated that the stoplight fuse and the stoplight switch were both okay. I tilted the steering wheel up and down while depressing the brake pedal and the lower stoplight bulbs came on. Diagnosis of a faulty connection at the turn signal/combination switch. I went ahead and unscrewed the tilt handle.

Then, I removed the screws holding the lower steering column cover in place.

I put the tilt handle back in so that I could move the column fully down.

It makes it easier to remove the top cover.

You can clearly see on of the wires pulled completely out of the harness connector.

I next carefully removed all of the wires from the new harness connector.

Then removed one wire at a time from the old connector and slid it into the new connector body. It just is not practical to splice in that many wires into this very tight area as there was no actual terminal damage. Only the plastic retaining pins in the connector body were broken.

To order this repair harness please click here.

1996 Jeep Cherokee Blower Inop

This 1996 Jeep Cherokee Classic came in with a complain of no blower operation. I asked if the the power windows were inop as part of my diagnostic routine but the customer informed me that this Jeep had manual windows. I then looked at the bottom of the steering column cover and saw a melted spot where the wires plug into the ignition switch. Diagnosis of faulty ignition switch and harness connector.

Unfortunately this picture is too dark to see the melted spot. However I started the repair by removing the torx screws that held on the bottom steering column cover.

Next, I removed the tilt handle by unscrewing it.

The next picture shows one of the ignition switch wires burnt in two.

Another view.

The two terminals on the top are burnt. Click on the picture to see a better view.

In order to remove the ignition switch, tamper resistant torx bits are needed.

With the screws removed there is only one harness left for the key light and buzzer switch.

Remove the retaining screw and bracket or push in the lock cylinder pin depending on the design.

Rotate the key until the cylinder pops part way out.

Remove the key and the cylinder will finish coming out of the switch.

Install the lock cylinder into the new switch and install the new bracket and screw depending on design.

The new harness assembly.

I removed the locking comb.

Used and angled terminal removal tool to remove the wires that I would not have to splice into the harness.

You can double click on the picture to better see the tip design.

I positioned the undamaged wire terminals into the new connector and spliced the two new wires into the damaged harness assembly.

I used a heat gun to shrink the heat shrink tubing.

Wrapped the harness with tape and formed into position. Plugged it up to previously installed switch and installed the steering wheel covers.

1996 Honda Civic #15 Fuse Blown

This 1996 Honda Civic came in with a complaint of the battery going dead. I checked and sure enough it was not charging and based on experience I checked to see if the speedometer was working. It was not. Knowing that this is a common fault with Civics, I checked to see if fuse #15 was blown in the interior fuse box and it was. Time to rack the car up. The following pictures are from underneath the car looking up past the driver’s side half shaft assembly.

The wires above the bracket that braces the intake to the block commonly rub through the insulation until a short circuit is made.

The bracket is easy to remove, just two bolts.

If you will double click on the following picture you can see where the Black/Yellow wire is melted.

This picture shows where the wire has shorted out against the bracket and left a rusty arc mark.

If you double click on the following picture you can see the bare copper wire exposed on the Black/Yellow wire. I took a short piece of electrical tape and wrapped it around the one wire.

Then I wrapped the harness with friction tape.

I also wrapped the bracket with friction tape. I installed the bracket and a new wire tie for the harness attached to it. Replaced the fuse and checked the system. All okay.

Update: Although the harness rubbing on the bracket in this article is a very common problem on these vehicles, there have been several reports in the comments that Civic owners are finding shorted oxygen sensors as another cause of fuse #15 blowing. So you may want to check the wiring around the oxygen sensors to make sure they are not shorting out on the exhaust. If no problem is found there disconnect the oxygen sensor wiring to see if the short will go away.

2002 Chevrolet Silverado Battery Goes Dead

The customer brought this 2002 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD, with a 6.6 liter diesel engine in, with the complaint that the batteries go dead and is slow cranking sometimes. He had replaced the batteries and the problem got better but is now starting to happen more often. The batteries on a dual battery system have to be checked a little different than a single battery system. The first thing that I did was to isolate the two batteries from each other and load tested them individually. To do this I only had to remove one ground cable and perform a load test at each battery. The driver’s side battery failed the load test and had to be replaced. Common thinking would be that this would be the cause of the customers complaint but I wanted to be absolutely sure. The next step was to check the starter draw from each battery. The new battery was was supplying 217 amps at 11.01 volts.

The older, passenger side battery was supplying 8 amps at 12.78 volts. This clearly showed me that there was a problem with the battery cables between this battery and the engine. I inspected the ground cable to make sure it was clean and tight at both the battery and the engine block. It was good.

The same could not be said for the positive cable.

I removed the terminal bolt and pulled the red cover off.

I then got my side post battery terminal brush. I found this design brush several years ago and I thinks it is the greatest thing in the world for cleaning side post battery terminals. To order one of these battery brushes please click here.

They attach to any 1/4 inch drive tool but I prefer a cordless 1/4″ power driver.

I put the brush to work and in just a minute or so both sides of the –

-terminal were clean. I finished cleaning the rest of the odd shaped parts of the terminal with a standard hand wire brush.

I then wrapped the cable with a rag and sprayed the terminal with an aerosol lubricant that leaves a protective barrier.

I finished by coating it with dielectric grease. Make SURE BOTH of the ground cables are safely away from the batteries while working with the positive cable. One wrong move and you will burn a hole in the a/c line.

Installed the red cover and a new bolt. To order new bolts please click here.

Now it is safe to connect the ground but first I did a drain test with both of the battery grounds disconnected. No drains present.

I retested the system and now both batteries supply and equal amount of amperage to the starter during cranking.

1999 Chevrolet Suburban No Crank Condition

A good customer called and said that on the way to work the security light came on in the dash and when he got to work the engine would no longer crank up. I suggested the normal check the battery cables, try cranking it in neutral instead of park, tilt the steering column up and down while cranking and doing a possible security system relearn. Nothing worked so he arranged to tow it to the shop. Luckily when it arrived the problem was still there so I started checking. Everything seemed fine except for the obvious no crank condition. I decided to check codes and found an security system code and faults for two oxygen sensor heater elements. I thought that the O2 codes were a little strange but I continued on. I cleared all of the codes and rechecked. Still did not crank and the security data looked okay. All of the instrument cluster lights worked properly and cycled as designed in the crank position.

These trucks like many vehicle have a crank fuse and that was the next step. I already had the ignition on but not in the crank position and when I touched my test light to the fuse test point the starter engaged and the engine started up. THAT IS NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!!! What is supposed to happen is the test light should illuminate when the ignition is cycled to the crank position.

I checked the wiring diagram for the starter relay, located in the under hood fuse box and found that there either had to be a badly damaged wiring harness or a faulty ground. The customer maintains this vehicle too well to have a harness damaged but he did say that he had recently replaced the intake gaskets because of a coolant leak. I of course knew, that there is a ground wire that attaches to the stud at the thermostat housing so I checked it. Sure enough I touched the wire and it was loose.

I slid on a piece of heat shrink tubing and crimped a new terminal on the wire.

Placed the heat shrink tubing over the terminal base and heated it with a heat gun.

This is the original terminal.

I attached the ground wire to the stud and cranked the engine. One big problem. The engine still would not crank. What did I miss? I went to the diagrams and component locators and found that the ground that I was looking for was on the right side of the engine block.  A little searching and I found that the ground I was looking for was actually much lower down on the passenger side of the engine. It attaches to a stud behind the lower radiator hose. It was loose but in good shape. I tightened it down and the truck was fixed. I also found that this terminal provides a ground for the oxygen sensor heater elements. The two codes that I thought were a little strange. The customer had been very meticulous in replacing the intake gaskets including fully removing the wiring harness from the top of the engine which of course required the ground be removed. He just forgot to tighten it all the way down.

1985 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham, A/C Compressor Does Not Come On

This 1985 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham came in with the complaint that the air conditioning compressor would not turn on and the weather is starting to heat up. I checked the refrigerant level and found it low but not low enough to cause the compressor to not engage. I have been down this road many times so with the engine running and the a/c set to maximum cooling, I confirmed that the compressor would not come on. I then took a screwdriver handle and tapped on the thermostatic switch and the compressor came on. I repeated this several times just to confirm problem and then I ordered a new switch. Simple right. Well for some reason this switch is no longer listed in the application catalogs and I had to find it in a buyers guide. The part number is 15-5222 in the ACDelco brand. While I waited on the new switch I went ahead and repaired a leaking service valve at the low side service port. After that was done, I removed the seal around the hose clamps that hold the capillary tube snug against the evaporator inlet tube

I also had to remove two screws that held the old switch in place. I installed the new switch by first copying the general bend in the capillary tube from the old switch and then mounted the switch with the two screws mentioned earlier. I then slid the capillary tube into position under the hose clamp bands. I rotated the hose clamps to the original position and tightened the clamps. Snug but not too tight.

Installed new sealing compound. The industry calls it DumDum for some reason. I actually use a windshield sealing putty because no one ever seems to have air conditioning DumDum

1996 GMC Sonoma, Turn Signals Inop, Changing The Turn Signal Flasher

The customer brought in this 1996 GMC Sonoma Pickup with and inoperative turn signal complaint. I checked the fuse and it was oaky. Next step is to check the turn signal flasher. This is a pretty straight forward repair except that most people do not realize where the flasher is at. Both the hazard and the turn signal flashers are located in what is referred to as a convenience center. I think it is a strange name, as it is anything but convenient to get to get to.

They are located behind the lower dash cover and just to the left of the lighter and power outlet assemblies.

The black plastic hush covers have to be removed in order to get to all of the screws and there are quite a few screws that have to be removed. If you loosen the lower screws and remove the upper screws the panel will tilt down enough to change the flasher. Be careful and do not bend the panel as it is metal and you will have a very difficult time reinstalling it.

The hazard flasher is on the left and the turn signal flasher is on the right. The new flasher is installed and the turn signals are now working again.

P0335, 2001 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD

A 2001 Chevrolet 2500HD with a 8.1 liter engine came in with the complaint that the engine would stall. Sometimes it would restart right away and sometimes it would not. I checked codes and found a code P0335 stored for a crank sensor fault. I did a basic inspection for anything obvious and found nothing loose or out of place. I did a little research and found that the crank sensors themselves have a fairly high failure rate so I decided to remove it for inspection. I also found out that they can be very difficult to remove. This one was no exception. There is a 10 mm headed bolt that secures the sensor to the rear of the engine. The sensor is located on the driver’s side on top of the rear of the engine just in front of the transmission bell housing. I read multiple warnings about having to remove the transmission if the sensor breaks off. The pictures I had taken of removing the sensor did not come out very well, so there are just a few of the new one going in. However to detail the removal procedure I used, I started by removing the 10 mm attaching bolt. Then I was able to rotate the sensor back and forth while pulling up on the sensor. I managed to get it up about an eighth of and inch this way and then I started spraying a little penetrating fluid on it. I let it soak in for about ten minutes and tried again. Now it was out about a quarter of an inch and now I could slide a curved pry bar under one edge and lifted it up with a smooth motion making sure to keep the center of the force in line with the center line of the sensor. I sprayed it again and waited again. The next time I was able to lift it a little higher. I sprayed it again and pushed it back in some to help distribute the the fluid. waited again and the next time it came what I thought was most of the way out. Same thing again, spray, push and wait. Finally after about five to six times of this procedure and various pry bars, I was able to remove the sensor.

The sensor on the left is the old one and if you look closely you should notice that there are two o-rings and the new one on the right has only one. It is the lower o-ring being stuck that makes this so difficult to remove. A little bit of clean lubricant on the new sensor o-ring and it went in without any problems.

By the way replacing the sensor  did fix the P0335 code and stalling problem.

1991 Ford E150 Battery Goes Dead Overnight

This 1991 Ford E150 van came in with the complaint that the battery will go dead overnight unless the customer disconnects the battery or leaves a battery charger hooked to the battery.

The first thing I had to do was to check for a battery drain. There are several ways to do this and I will show a couple. Start by loosening the battery negative cable, try not to break the circuit until you have your test device installed. Slide the cable up the terminal post while maintaining contact and connect one lead to the post and the other to the cable before you actually separate the two. The first picture shows the multimeter with one lead hooked to the battery post and the other lead to the battery cable. There is a 3.25 amp draw on the system. The second picture shows using a test light hooked up in the same manner as the multimeter and a strong illumination of the bulb. It is harder to tell if you have a very minor drain using the test light method because the bulb element may just barely glow. Also keep in mind that on later model vehicles with on board computers it may take an hour or more for all of the computer systems to go into sleep mode or time out. This van has only one computer and takes only seconds for it to time out.

With this large of  drain and the type of vehicle that it is the first thing I wanted to check was the voltage regulator. It is the silver or grey colored box with rust on it behind the battery in the picture below. With this particular type of problem another simple test is to check to see if the regulator is warm to the touch on a cold engine with a charged battery. If it is warm,then the regulator is faulty. What happens to these regulators is that a circuit shorts out and sends a signal to the alternator to charge. With the engine not running and the alternator not turning it turns it into a drain condition rather than a charge condition. The alternator will also get very warm from this condition.

I disconnected the voltage regulator and the drain is now gone. The .01 amp drain is at an acceptable drain level and is most likely being caused by the memory circuit in the vehicle radio.

You can also see the element in the test light bulb is fully out.

I installed a new regulator and checked the charging system. More problems, although the voltage and amperage readings are within specifications the diode/stator light is on to the left of the gauges. This indicates that there is some ac voltage being sent out of the alternator rather than all dc voltage. The condition is usually caused by a shorted diode or stator assembly.

I like having this feature in my test equipment but if it is not available again a multimeter can be used to test for ac voltage.  Simply set the meter to read ac voltage and connect it to the positive and negative cables.  A reading of .154 VAC is too much. Anything over .05 VAC is too much. Time to change the alternator.

In case you were wondering, the customer’s problems started with a faulty regulator which was draining the battery. The customer would just barely be able to start the engine or would have to jump start the engine and then would just let the engine run to recharge the battery. This is a very big mistake. An alternator is design to keep a fully charged battery fully charged. It is not designed to recharge a discharged or dead battery. The alternator will be damaged under these conditions and it can take as little as 5-10 minutes. When a battery is discharged or dead it must be recharged with a battery charger and not the alternator.