# 95 cavalier electrical problem... please help!!



## Bethany (Apr 22, 2007)

okay so here are the symptoms.... when you are driving down the road..the radio, headlights, turn signals, interior light, horn, and wipers either stop working all together...or they are working VERY slow. I tested the battery and alternator and they are both fine. I also replaced all of the fuses and it didn't help. Any ides on how to figure out what it could be? i know there are ALOT of wires so i dont know where to begin.:sigh:


----------



## carsey (Aug 19, 2006)

Check the grounding points to make sure they are not rusty and are making a good contact. Also check for any short circuits anywhere


----------



## cardoc (Apr 15, 2007)

also ck the battery connections by undoing them and checking for corrossion at the side terminal posts (corrosion can be hidden untill dissassembled).also ck for loose alternator connections or slipping drive belt.Does the engine start and run ok?


----------



## manic (Aug 2, 2005)

*Re: please help!*

Alternator may be failing under load. It will test fine, but once its under
a strain at high rpm thats when failure can occur. Check wiring going to
alternator as well.


----------



## Bethany (Apr 22, 2007)

well I unhooked the battery and hooked it back up and it's still testing fine...same with the alternator. I checked the ground wiring and it was pretty bad so I replaced it but it did nothing. The engine starts right up no problem and the car had never stalled on me once. It seems to only srat doing it when I turn the wheel right or left. I was told that the power steering pump when it goes bad can cause the pulley to tighten up and cause tension on the belt and therefore make the alernator loose power so I replaced that and still no good. Today I took off the steering wheel to check the wiring in there to see if that good be causing it but all connections are good. im going crazy!!


----------



## qldit (Mar 26, 2007)

Good Morning Bethany, in that the engine and other items perform properly, it would seem that the problem is affecting only your headlamps, and other accessory type items.
I have seen a similar kind of effect caused by a defective fuse panel, it may be worth disconnecting the battery and dropping that fuse block and inspecting all the connectors on the back of it for discoloured spade connectors and that all that wiring and all connectors are in good condition.

It is entirely possible that one of the fuse receptacles has had an overheat condition and is causing a "high resistance" connection. (usually in one of those rear connectors, possibly in a wire crimp or the spade itself)
This often relates to one of the spade connectors on the back having poor connection and overheating. Look for looseness and discolouration.

I have no idea how the steering might be affecting it, unless there is some steering mounting minute pressure distortion or flexing of the pannelling affecting the fuse panel or something like that.

If you have a handheld volt meter you might monitor the actual voltage with different electrical loads from different points on the vehicle, like at the battery (on the actual battery posts) and at the fuse panel in various places.

Some similar problems can happen with ignition switch accessory contacts having problems, but in that your headlamps are also affected that more or less discounts that.

Some vehicles have fusible links near the battery terminals that sometimes cause odd problems, but this should be detectable by voltage monitoring of the accessory points at the main fuse panel with the system under some electrical load.

Interesting problem.

Cheers, qldit.


----------



## Bethany (Apr 22, 2007)

good evening qldit! So I dropped the fuse box and everything was fine. I took apart my whole entire dashboard and checked every wire in the car and they all seemed to be fine. Like I said before, I also changed the ground wire. So I figured that it HAD to be the alternator. I took it off and the wires were terrible. I had the alternator completely re-built, came home and put it back in...and it had no effect on the problem. I then checked the ignition accessory and module thing and it was fine also. So I tried to take it for a test drive. Well when i made a left turn, all the electrical went out and the car completely shut off. It started right back up though. This is driving me insane. The battery cables are new and the battery is testing fine as is the new alternator. Tomorrow i am going to take it somewhere where they can hook it up to a computer. Hopefully they'll be able to tell me where the problem spot is without charging me alot for it. I have never heard of a problem like this in my life lol.


----------



## Midnight Tech (Dec 31, 2001)

Bethany, this one's got me puzzled too:4-dontkno ...can't wait to see what it turns out to be.


----------



## qldit (Mar 26, 2007)

Good Afternoon Bethany, yes I am at a loss to explain further, unless that vehicle uses fusible links near the battery in the supply line for those accessories.

Sometimes these fusible links can give problems, usually at their connect points, but I am not familiar with that vehicle and don't have a wiring diagram for it.

I would suspect a problem probably in a poor connection or crimp terminal at the power pickup point for the fuse panel supply out in the engine bay. 

So you have confirmed the earth lead from the engine to the chassis is good.

I am wondering if that earth lead from the engine to the chassis were bad if there was any possibility the earth route may be going through the steering column and its bearings and causing this wierd effect.

Sorry no more ideas.

Cheers, qldit.


----------



## torads (Mar 12, 2008)

Bethany and all who have assisted.

The problem I currently have is sort of the same. 95 cavalier, My emergency brake light , seatbelt light, abs and my daytime running light flickers on and off intermitenly. Also when im driving the radio turns off and on and the wipers are much slower than usual. i have now a new battery, alternator and have a new instrument cluster (I have not installed yet) as the shop said that this was my problem. I have a weird feeling that when i change the cluster I will have not solved anything. the car is worth nothing but i am now over $300 in without solving the problem. I think it is possibly a bad ground to the chassis or something like that. the problem is that I know nothing about cars, i'm just good at searching the web for similar problems. Can anyone help me locate all the grounds that I will need to check excluding the connections to the battery as they are new and have been checked.

Battery to block (where?)
block to chassis (where?)

any others?

Once i check these and still have a problem, then I will go ahead and remove the dash and change the instrument cluster.
One more thing when I'm changing the cluster I will disconnect the negative battery cable but how do unplug the airbags? I would hate to have these blow up in my face as I'm a little worried about hitting a trigger by accident.

Any assistance would be much appreciated.....

Here is a link where I have found a similar topic discussed

http://www.automobileanswers.com/Ch...ion-Electrical_&_Lighting_Systems-095604.html


----------



## qldit (Mar 26, 2007)

Good Evening Bethany, Just re-reading this situation, and the steering affecting the problem.
Most often the ignition switches in many vehicles have multiple contacts and the accessory section is apart from the ignition and the start sections.

It is possible that the accessory contacts have a problem and steering movement could exacerbate that kind of situation.

I think it may be an idea to remove the column shroud and have a close look at the actual switch connections, this would be best done with a meter monitoring the accessory switched connections to see if there is a voltage drop happening across them.

Actual steering forces my be marginally moving something in this area or the switch may be defective, there is probably a disconnect plug somewhere near the bottom of the in cab wiring from this area as well.

That seems to me to be next.

Cheers, qldit.

Good Evening torads, it may be an idea to begin a new thread to avoid confusion.
I would suggest obtaining a suitable manual for that particular vehicle and being very careful with that airbag circumstance.

The problem you describe sounds very similar.

If you obtain a manual specific for that vehicle the electrical diagrams should be at the rear, you should be able to identify the switching for that cabin / accessory module (if used) and where the control for it originates, I suspect it may be a similar situation.

Having a simple voltmeter is extremely helpful chasing these kinds of problems.

I would have to agree the instrument cluster replacement sounds a bit strange.

Others will have different ideas.

Cheers, qldit.


----------



## cardoc (Apr 15, 2007)

Hi everyone
I always tell my crew to check the basics first.So far I've seen no mention of the belt 
tensioner.They tend to freeze in one spot from rust keeping the belt tight but not tight enough.The alternator pulley is the first to suffer because it's the smallest.When the steering is used it may be just enough for the belt to slip.
Engine off try pulling on the belt.It should take a bit of effort to get the tensioner to move and it should spring back immediatly.
Engine running when you're having your problem try hooking up a volt meter to the battery and see what your getting while driving.It shouldn't fall much below 12.6 volts under "all" loads. If belt is tight I would highly suspect alternator at that point.
When you changed the ps pump did you notice belt tension?How did you test the alternator/carbon pile load or just unloaded voltage?
Ok REREAD 
Dought very much you would have a cluster problem but I'am not the one testing it.
To discharge air bag system it's best to leave the battery disconnected for an hour to be sure.
Good luck.
Cardoc


----------



## cardoc (Apr 15, 2007)

Hi again
I wonder if all the lights you metioned are powered by the same fuse/circuit.This could be caused by corosion even at a fuse or connection.Check your owners manual for fuse locations etc.But this would not effect the wipers for they should be on a separate circuit.
When clusters are a problem lights will usually not work from a bad connection which is usually repairable. Grounds should be tracable from battery and block
Cardoc


----------



## torads (Mar 12, 2008)

Guys, you were right about the cluster. the link I gave in my first thread was the kicker for me. The person had the exact same problem and one response said it was a ground. I changed the cluster and started it up knowing that it wouldn't be fixed. This is why I don't trust the computers reading all of the time. the computer sometyimes says that parts are faulty when there not. It was the ground from the negative battery post to the battery tray. About 6 inches down the cable was a metal eyelet that needed to be grounded to the tray the battery sits on. One screw was my problem. We didn't notice this because my father bought a new cable when he got the new battery. this cable did not have the eylet, just a spot to atttach an eyelet. Once I convinced him that it was a ground we back tracked and figured that when he changed this cable was when we noticed the extra dash problems as this all started with a bad ignition coil. Thank you all for your ideas and replies. I will search the this forum and other online forums first before I ever believe what the dealership or shop computer says i need. And one that note I think I may have convinced my father that his mechanic is nothing but a parts changer and has no troubleshooting abilities whatsoever. He is a very stubborn old man and this may have opened his eyes about the information superhighway! Well done all.


----------



## mack1 (Nov 27, 2007)

Hi torads,
I'm a day late and glad you fixed your problem. You had asked where you could get a good wiring diagram. I have subscribed to Aldata (maby alldata, can't remember) owned by autozone. It cost $25 to register the first vehicle and $10 for each thereafter. I was able to download the best wiring diagrams for a 96 S10 blazer that I have ever seen for an automobile. All the wire numbers and colors were spelled out and all the ground points were shown. Each ground location was called out, unbelievable. Also, unlike the maintenance books, only data for the blazer was shown. I didn't have to figure out what applied to my vehicle. 
I'm not sure you can get that level of detail for all vehicles, but it was sure worth the money to me. Don't take too long to use up $25 worth of labor searching with out a good map.

Hope this helps someone.
Mack1


----------

