1996 Ford F150, No Rear Turn Signals and No Stoplights

The customer stated that the rear turn signals worked but not with the tail lights turned on and the stoplights did not work at all. Having been down this road many times I surmised that there was a faulty ground somewhere and started checking the basics like loose connectors and loose ground bolts but I found none. When working with dual element bulbs, if both elements are dimly lit with only one control signal turned on ,you have a faulty ground to that bulb and if the condition is repeated in other bulbs you have a faulty system ground.

I decided to test the ground and could not find a ground at the main harness in the rear. I used a jumper wire to attach a ground temporarily and had someone observe the light to see if it lit up properly so that I could narrow my search. I was told it did so I moved my jumper wire and asked if the bulb had gone back dim again. I was told “no it is still bright”. This isn’t good. I must have moved something to make the ground come back. Time to drop back and look at the big picture. What has been done to this vehicle recently? I looked around and I found a hose clamp slightly out of position and noticed scratch marks along the frame rail and on the gas tank. Someone has recently put a fuel pump in I thought. With this in mind I decided to pull the main harness part way out and inspect it.

As you can see in the pictures the harness was damaged at forward edge of the fuel tank assembly. Apparently the installer was having some problems and forced the tank into place with the harness hooked on the edge of the tank and cut two wires completely in half and damaged several others.

A few splices and heat shrink tubing to repair the damage and all is well. On the wires that only had damage to the insulation, I removed the wire from the plug in connector and slid heat shrink tubing back up the wire to seal the damage. Taking a little extra time to do this, kept me from having a large knot of splice connectors in one place in the harness which could cause further problems for the customer at a later date.

Replacing a Noisy Speedometer Cable On a 1985 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham

This customers car has been in my life for way too many years and the last few times I have had the car in for repairs I have noticed and commented to the customer about a very noisy speedometer cable. The customer finally said she has also had enough of the noise and now I get to change it. The original cable was a two piece design and it has been replaced by a one piece design. After looking over the situation I decided the first course of action was to removed the instrument cluster and this started with removing the left vent lever knob. An allen screw holds it in place.

Next I wanted to remove the hidden phillips headed screw in the driver’s left vent assembly.

It is a little tricky and you need a magnet or a magnetic tipped screwdriver to get it out without dropping it down the vent.

Next, I took out the two screws in either corner of the instrument cluster opening.

Now onto the easy screws at the bottom of the dash panel.

Tilt the wheel down, drop the shift lever all the way down and remove the trim panel from the dash.

Disconnected the shift indicator cable at the base of the shifter collar.

Remove the four retaining screws and pull the instrument cluster out. Well it is little bit more complicated than that. The cluster will only come out so far before the speedometer cable and cluster wiring stops it. On this one there was not enough room to access the clips in the rear so I had to go through some extra steps.

I had to remove the wiper and headlight switches and squeeze my hand in far enough to work the wiring around so that the cluster would come out far enough.

With the cluster now out a good two or three inches I had to maneuver my hand gently behind the cluster and squeeze the two harness retaining clips at the ends of the connector. Then with the main wiring loose I could depress the spring lever lock on the back of the instrument cluster to release the cable from the cluster.

Between the pictures above and below I think you can see the design of the clips and retainers for the main harness connection. The picture below has the instrument cluster removed and upside down so you will need to bear in mind that when you reach your hand behind the cluster the connection is at the top left and not the bottom left. Right and left in relation to a vehicle are always from the perspective of sitting in the driver’s seat looking forward unless otherwise noted.

The three wire connector shown is held in place by a single screw. The unit is the pickup of the vehicle speed sensor and it is a photo optic design. Pretty high tech for it’s time. On the other side of the speedometer housing is the spring clip that has to be depressed.

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The three wires go back to the VSS sensor assembly. It is the yellow box further back in the dash.

The hole for the speedometer cable is shown below. It is to the right of the brake booster and just above the bulkhead wiring connector in the picture.

The following picture shows the grommet that goes into the firewall. By the way please remember to wrap a piece of mechanics wire around the speedometer cable assembly before you pull it out. It makes it much easier to pull the new cable into its proper position. I forgot because it had been so long since I had done one I guess.

The old cable has been removed. The new cable has been greased with the supplied grease and put in the proper location at the transmission. I did not actually connect it to the transmission until I had everything connected in the dash. Sorry for the lack of pictures.

The above picture shows the lack of a guide or fishing wire as I explained earlier so it took quite a bit of doing to get the cable back into proper position.

Once I had it back in place it was just a matter of reassembling at of the pieces. Several things to remember. Use a guide wire on the cable, remember to hook the shift indicator cable back up, check to make sure the new cable is not kinked, near the exhaust or anything else that may damage it. Lastly connect the cable to the transmission.

Reduced Power Displayed 2003 Chevrolet Tahoe

This 2003 Chevrolet Tahoe with a 5.3 liter engine came in with the customer complaint of the reduced power display was on and the vehicle could not be driven more than about 30 mph. Checking codes found a code p1516 stored for Predicted VS. Actual Throttle Position Correlation Error. That is fancy computer talk for the computer expects the TPS to be in one position and it sees the TPS in another position. There are several things that can cause this condition but by far the most common is a faulty throttle body assembly. I have noticed a disturbing trend in these vehicles in that the last few that I have had to change I also found very weak batteries and the weaker the battery is during cranking the more pronounced the symptom. If the key was left on in these vehicles for more than about five to ten minutes (the time it takes to hook up a scanner and check computer codes and relative data), the starter would turn the engine over very slowly (indicating a weak battery) and sometimes the battery would have to be jumped to start the engine. I may be wrong but it is my belief that a weak battery condition during cranking may be leading to premature failure of the throttle body assembly. My personal philosophy on late model highly computerized vehicles is to replace the battery every three to five years regardless and of course use a good battery and not the cheapest you can find.

Anyways on to changing the throttle body assembly. First remove the upper engine trim cover by first removing the screw and lift off.

Next remove the intake tube that connects to the mass air flow sensor.

Now the intake hose from the throttle body assembly.

Disconnect the clip that holds the intake hose assembly to the radiator hose.

Remove the harness connector from the throttle body by first pulling the gray locking clip back. Depress the lever and remove the connector. Inspect the yellow wire for possible damage as it too can cause the problem, although it seems to be more of a problem in the full sized vans.

There are three nuts that have to be removed.

Next the coolant lines have to come off but first I clamped them both off with hose clamp pliers. Then I took the coolant hose spring clamp and moved it back down the hose so that I could remove the hose from the throttle body. One could use pliers with a little luck and a lot of frustration it will move.

After the hose, next to the alternator is removed the throttle body can be repositioned to make the rest of the job easier.

Off with the old and on with the new. First the passenger side hose is installed. Then the throttle body assembly is put back in place and the driver’s side hose is reattached. In the following picture you can see that I used two pair of hose clamp pliers for the job. It saves having to drain the coolant system and time is money.

Now it is time to put the hose clamp back in place.

The new throttle body is now installed and ready for the intake hose and top trim cover to be replaced.

Changing The Headlight Bulbs On A 1999 Pontiac Sunfire.

This is a simple straight forward job but a lot of people are asking for this type of information so here goes. To change the headlight bulbs on a 1999 Pontiac Sunfire. First remove the cover by pulling the center push pins up in order to release the retaining pins.

After the cover is out of the way. Remove the two bolts that hold the headlight assembly in place.

Pull the assembly from the car.

Flip the assembly over to gain access to the wiring.

Lift the locking tabs and pull the connector from the bulb. I don’t have there hands so I did not get a picture of lifting the locking tabs.

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Grab the bulb retainer and twist counter clockwise to release.

Remove the retainer.

Remove the old bulb.

Install the new bulb but do not touch the glass as residue from your fingers will blow the bulb when the lights are turned on!!!

Install the retainer over the new bulb, hook up the wiring and reinstall the assembly.

Here are some important things to notice when you look under your hood on this series of vehicles or any vehicle. This customer is headed for trouble because of a leaking battery. Some times a battery will work fine electrically but needs to be replaced due to leaking acid. This is one as evidenced by the corrosion at the battery hold down bolt. Notice the bolt head just above the red cap at about one o’clock. It is the main body ground and a poor connection here will cause engine performance, abs, security system and lighting problems among others.

The corrosion on the positive cable is obvious But what is not so obvious is the multi wire harness connector that is under the battery tray that is being rotted out by battery acid. It requires replacement of two full wiring harnesses at well over a thousand dollars parts and labor or many hours cutting, extending and splicing around twenty plus wires. I usually charge about $600 to repair this harness connector. It can all be avoided by checking and changing a leaking battery. Which even with some clean up time only amounts to $150ish including the battery.

Plastic hose rotted in two from battery acid. Easy enough to fix. Cut back to good plastic and splice back together with rubber hose.

2003 Nissan Altima, Changing The Headlight Bulbs

The right headlight was not working on this 2003 Nissan Altima. The customer had tried to change the bulb and had caused some minor body damage and his wife said no more take it to the shop. Changing the headlight bulbs on these cars is not easy by design. You see if you have HID or Xenon bulbs they operate off of very high voltage and the voltage can kill you so the manufacturers would prefer that untrained personnel would not attempt to change the bulbs. You of course can do it safely but use caution. The main thing is to not backprobe any wire in the system and DO NOT TOUCH the actual wiring at the bulb with the HID module plugged in. Not all of these cars use the Xenon bulbs for the low beam, some just use a regular halogen bulb. This is what you have to do to change the bulb in either system.

You start by removing the filler cover over the top of the radiator and the front facia. There are several push pin type fasteners that hold it in place. Sorry for the lack of a picture. Next you can remove the two visible bolts for the headlight housing.

Next remove the clips that hold the lower filler panel to the front facia and several around the wheel well openings.

Once the fasteners have been removed from the wheel well opening enough to flex them back, locate the two screws inside that hold the horizontal edge of the front facia to the lower edge of the fender. The picture shows the one closest to the the wheel but there is another one several inches in that also has to be removed. Repeat the process for the other side.

Start sliding the facia off the car but be sure to support it enough to remove the fog light wiring connectors. An extra person to help is convenient but not necessary.

Now you can remove the hidden screw. The module below the headlight bolt with the yellow warning label is the one to respect.

If you need to disconnect the harness connector from the HID control Unit for testing make sure the key is off, the lights are off and preferably disconnect the battery following manufacturers instructions. DO NOT try to test the wiring with the unit hooked up, you could die or be seriously injured. The testing of the wires should be as follows. Low beam power input to the red/yellow wire, ground input on the black wire and continuity between the remaining wires at the HID module connector and the contacts at the bulb connector. Below is a side view of the area showing the yellow warning sleeve on the wiring and the last screw to remove in order to pull the headlight assembly from the car.

With the proper safety precautions taken remove the gray plastic housing from the rear of the assembly. It twists off.

Now you are finally at the low beam bulb. Another warning label not to die!!!

Pull the harness connector off of the bulb. Release the two ears of the spring clip that holds the bulb in place. Remove the old bulb and install the new. Be very careful not to touch the glass as dirt and body oil from your fingers will cause the bulb to blow and the bulb costs about $100 +-.

Reconnect the harness to the bulb. Install the gray cover, bolt the headlight in place and test the function. Because of the labor involved I recommend changing all of the bulbs while you have it apart. The choice is yours.

And we have light!!!

Put the front of the car back together and the job is done.

1998 Chevrolet Malibu, Turn Signals and Horn Inop

This 1998 Chevrolet Malibu came in with the complaint that the turn signals did not work properly and the horn did not work. Inspecting the turn signals found that the signal was reaching the bulb but it seemed very weak. First place to start is one of the easier bulbs to get to to see what’s going on. There is a black plastic panel that covers the front light assemblies.

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There are multiple push pin retainers that have to be removed. Pull the center core up and then the rest of the retainer will come out will a little pull.

There are two blade type retainers that have to be lifted in order to get the light assembly out.

You can use your fingers or if you are careful you can use a screwdriver for assistance.

With the light assembly out it is easy to remove the turn signal socket and bulb for inspection.

With only the turn signal on I noticed that both bulb elements were lit dimly and not flashing. From experience I knew this was a sign of a faulty ground.

I glanced down at the inner fender panel in front of the driver’s strut tower and this is what I saw. How lucky could I be? The ground buss assembly was not bolted down.

Come to find out the car had recently had the transmission out at another shop and the problem started immediately after leaving the transmission shop. The customer took the car back and was told that taking the transmission out had nothing to do with the lights. I detest the combination of ignorance and laziness, which is what the other shop seemed to have. The bolt for the ground had been broken off while removing the transmission and no one bothered hooking it back up. Since the bolt was broke off, I found another hole nearby that luckily was threaded and just moved the ground over and installed a new bolt.

The light is back bright and blinking, although you can’t see the blinking in the picture.

A nice simple repair for a change. By the way, the horn also is back working!

2001 Chevrolet Impala Low Beam Headlights Inop

This 2001 Chevrolet Impala came in with the complaint of no low beam headlights. The obvious things to check first were the bulbs and the fuses and all were okay. Time to pull the lower dash cover out to access the wiring for the dimmer/combination switch. Remove the screws at the bottom of the cover, pull the top edge of the panel towards the seat in order to unhook the spring clips. Disconnect the trunk release switch and then remove the outer screws and inner bolts from the interior metal bracket.

The harness shown in the next picture is located at the left side of the steering column.

Follow it until you find this connector. It should be clipped to a bracket at the lower right side of the steering column. This one was already hanging down so I knew someone else had already been here.

This picture shows the clip that it should have been attached to.

The white clip has to be flipped or rotated in order to disconnect the harness connector.

With the harness disconnected, I checked to see if I had power on the dark blue wire at position C4. I did and this told me that the power that came from the fuse through the low beam headlight element and through the the wiring harness was intact and doing its job. I attached a ground wire to my test light probe and checked to see if the low beams came on and they did. Unlike older vehicles this Impala uses a switched ground to change from high to low beam. One slightly strange thing that I noticed was that the wire color on the harness side of the connector is dark blue but on the switch side of the connector it is brown. I also noted that the ground control wire from the headlamp relay at position C3 is light blue on the harness side and yellow on the switch side of the connector.

Time to change the combination switch assembly. In order to do this the steering column cover has to be removed and the trick to doing this job easy without having to remove the steering wheel is to use a short bit with a small wrench. The top one is no problem.

The front one takes a little effort and coordinated fingers. I use a small screwdriver to hold the end of the bit down so that it will stay in the screw. There was not enough room to take a picture of all of that though.

Reverse the procedure to install the new switch. The switch wiring will have been held in place by some wire ties and some clips, be sure to install new wire ties and attach all of the wiring as it was originally intended by the manufacturer.

Something extra I took a picture of is the back side of the driver’s interior fuse box. The gray box above the circuit breaker is the headlamp relay. It sends one of two grounds to the dimmer switch.

2000 Buick Century Blower Will Not Turn Off

A good customer came in with her 2000 Buick Century and complained that the blower would not turn off even with the key off. The car has manual HVAC so I was already sure that the blower relay that is built into the blower resistor assembly was stuck. No big deal I have changed dozens of them. I went under the passenger side of the dash unhooked the wiring, the blower went off as suspected so I removed the forward screw. Unhooked the wiring to the blower motor and firmly wiggled the resistor off of the two rear screws. The resistor has slots in it so it is easier to remove the resistor and then loosen the screws with the resistor out of the way.

I quickly hooked up the new resistor to make sure all was well when I found I had only two speeds working. As a cautionary note I made sure the resistor was clear of all objects and as I turned the key on, I ran the blower switch through all speeds and then turned the key off immediately so that I would not damage the new resistor. The whole operation takes about 5-10 seconds if properly prepared. You can also see that the new resistor has a heavier design than the original. To order a new resistor please

click here.

Time to test the wiring to see what was going on. Power on the first wire with the key on. Good!

No power on the next wire. Bad!

Power again on the fourth wire but no power on the remaining wires. With this knowledge and years of experience I determined that there was a problem at the blower switch. Because of the split in the wires that had power I knew that both fuses involved in the blower circuit were okay and there was power at the blower switch. The problem had to be at the switch or in the wiring between the switch and resistor. Time to pull the switch out and inspect. First I removed the lower attaching screws at either side of the center dash panel.

I then firmly grasped it and pull the panel away from the dash to release the spring clip retainers. You can see one of the retainers to the left of my thumb.

I then removed the two attaching screws.

Tilted the panel out and tested the wiring the same as I did at the resistor connector with the same results. I did this by lightly back probing the wires. Unfortunately I could not do this and take a picture and no one else was around to do it for me.

Anyway I replaced the faulty switch and retested the wires at the blower resistor connector and all passed.

I finished the job by installing the new blower resistor and also checking and replacing the cabin air filter. To see that procedure click here.

Changing The Cabin Air Filter On A 2000 Buick Century

To change the cabin air filter on a 2000 Buick Century or similar vehicle, first with the hood down, turn the ignition on, turn the wipers on, turn the ignition off with the wipers straight up.

Lift the hood and go to the passenger side of the car. Remove the retainer next to the passenger side wiper arm. It has a threaded push pin that needs to be backed out and then the whole retainer can be removed.

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Do the same thing to the retainer in the corner next to the fender. You will also need to lift the washer hose from the top of the cover assembly.

There is a larger threaded retainer in between the other two that also needs to be removed. Just remove like any screw.

Pull the seal of the front edge of the cover and metal base. Lift the cover to access the filter. There is a pull strap on the front edge of the filter that can be used to lift and pull the filter out of the car.

Make sure your new filter is the correct design.

Install new filter. I have found that the new filter will have to be bent into a slight “C” shape in order for it to go into the slot. You may have to work with it some to get it into place. Do not dislodge the plastic holder for the filter as you may develop water leaks. On some vehicles there is a water deflector that goes over the filter. This car had a rubber edge seal that was out of position. You can see the shadow of where it was mounted on the leading edge of the white metal in the picture below.

You can see the seal back in place in the following picture.

Reinstall the cover and retainers, clip the washer hose back into place, install the front seal and you are done.

2005 Chevrolet Impala Ignition Key Will Not Turn All The Way Off

This is a story of how little things left unattended and decisions made in haste can lead to huge problems. The customer came into the shop keys in hand, complaining that the ignition would not shut all the way off in her 2005 Chevrolet Impala and she needed it looked at. I asked where the car was because I assumed she had left it running and only had the remote and other keys on her key chain. It was cold outside and I had all of the shop doors closed and I don’t feel comfortable leaving a car running completely unattended. She said don’t worry the engine is off and the car is locked up. The only thing was she wanted me to look at it soon because the battery may go dead. This concerned me greatly and I asked how she got the key out if the ignition would not turn off. Oh, we can turn it far enough to turn the engine off and my dad had to work at it but he managed to pull the key out! This is getting worse I thought. Little did I know. She left the keys and the car and after I finished what I was working on I went to move the car inside to check it out. What you can see in the next picture is the ignition switch with no key in it. The switch is most of the way off but not enough for the cluster to power down. What you can’t see is the explosion of trash, dirt and sticky film on everything.

The next nine pictures are of a different Impala that I already had that is why the parts look clean.

The first step was to get to the ignition switch to see what was going on. First the lower steering column cover and metal bracket behind it had to be removed. Most of the screws are 7mm and easy to find. There are however 4, 10mm screws that require an extension to remove them. They hold the inner part of the bracket to the dash.

One of the 10mm bolts is located through the hole to the right of my cordless driver. There is a corresponding hole on the right side of the column and the other two are located deep in the dash and are reached along the lower edge of the bracket.

The next step is to remove the front dash trim panel. There are two screws in the upper edge of the cluster opening, a screw on each end of the dash behind the access covers for the fuse boxes and sometimes there is a screw or two along the lower edge around the steering column.

This one required removing the headlight switch knob and shaft assembly. To remove pull the switch fully on and depress the plastic “button” to the right of where the screwdriver is pointing. Then with the “button” depressed pull the knob and shaft from the switch assembly. I had a little difficulty reinstalling the knob assembly into the switch and this is what I actually took a picture of. The knob would not “catch” the inner workings of the switch so I had to go through the slotted hole and work the inner slide mechanism forward and then position the tip of the screwdriver to hold it in place as I pushed the knob and shaft back into place.

Next the hazard and traction control switches has to be disconnected.

Now I could remove the two 10mm bolts that hold the switch in place.

Then I could push the switch into the dash and then pull it out of the bottom of the dash to remove the wiring and cable.

I then removed the shift interlock cable and checked to see if the switch would now turn all of the way off. Success, but not so fast, now the key will not turn the switch back on and the key has to be on in order to remove the lock cylinder for disassembly. Son of a B!*&%$ this just got bad.

The normal progression of this repair is to disconnect the electrical connections going to the ignition switch. Turn the key on. Release the shifter interlock cable. Remove the lock cylinder by depressing the button.

And remove the security sensor wires. But throw all of that out the window. In order to remove the sensor wiring from the switch the lock cylinder has to be removed first. The switch has to be in the on position to remove the lock cylinder. The key will not turn back on for some reason.

Time to start cutting. I chose to use a cut off wheel type cutter and cut the plastic until I could remove the lock cylinder and of course because I did not want to cut the sensor wires I did this in the car.

After I removed the lock cylinder I removed the sensor wires from the switch.

I then had to cut and split the lock cylinder apart so that I could remove the tumblers and recode the new lock cylinder kit.

To see how to check tumbler codes and assemble new tumbler kit click here.

Now that I had that out of the way just what caused all of this. Can we say filth, rust and a sticky film. I knew the problem had to be in the shifter interlock cable and now we are back to real pictures of this car. Seems like the young lady that drives this car had spilled more than one big gulp down the center console and failed to do much cleaning. No surprise there. Between the stickiness, the dirt that collected on the stickiness and the rust that developed under the stickiness the plastic pawl in the shifter could not move properly and it needs to move in order for the cable to move.

The cover over the shifter is held on by spring clips and it has to be pulled up as an assembly as shown below. You can see the six clips that hold it in place. By the way I had already cleaned the cover before I took the picture below.

You can barley see the white shift pawl on the side of the shifter.

You can clearly see white plastic pawl to the right of the picture. A clean up and some lubricant and this one was fixed.

This is not that uncommon of a problem and most cars are not this filthy. Several other factors can cause the same problem. A damp car will allow rust to form. A dusty car will gum up the lubricant and cause the mechanism to stick. If the key in your car will not turn all of the way off I would suggest lifting the cover shown earlier and spray some good lubricant on the plastic pawl and work it back and forth by hand to free it up and allow the key to turn all of the way off.

Now what happened to this car was a build up of rust and stickiness caused the shifter interlock cable to become stuck. A poor decision to force the key out bent the tumblers in the lock cylinder and only a year or so of failing to clean the vehicle resulted in a 800 dollar repair. Those big gulps and laziness sure got expensive.

By the way as a footnote can you tell that Sparky, HATES STICKY CARS!!!!