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Comments
Vito
Not that it's a problem but I've had the car for 2 years now and until a couple of days ago, the radio always shut off as I opened the door and now it doesn't.
Anyone experienced this or know what the issue may be?
Fuse in passenger compartment ok!
Disconnected blower motor, resister and same happened.
Replaced with a new relay...same problem.
Replaced switches in Dash with one from scrap yard same problem.
Tried new resister...same problem.
Anyone know of where the short might be?
Pontiac 2000 Sunfire Automatic
I have a problem with my reverse lights, I changed the bulbs, and the sockets seem ok, does this car jus have bad wiring or sauder joints? can anyone shed some light on this?
Thanks for the reply. The local GM dealership told me that one of the rear speakers had a short in it and that was my problem. The service mgr. said to replace the rear speakers and that would fix the problem.
I am a Union electrician and that just doesn't make any sense to me.
My front speakers have never missed a beat but the rear speakers just come and go, not when I hit bumps and such, just randomly kick in and out, one or both.
I think theres a short in the wiring harness going to the rear speakers. I would sure like to hear from anyone that has replaced the rear speakers and that rectified the problem.
Thanks biker, and Thanks in advance for any insight.
Todd
Thanks,
MaryAnn
Problem was the "back up" switch mounted on the tranny. Easy to get at. Pull the left front wheel and you see a wiring harnass going to the tranny. Problem is that the alluminum housing gives away on the switch. Switch still will read ok on ohmmeter. Replace switch!! And problem is solved.
And today my odometer is gone again! Will it return I do not know.
Good Luck with your cars!
If the relay is dead nothing will work.
Question is: has anyone else had an issue such as this? If so, where did you get it fixed and how much did it cost you?? I personally think I am getting screwed in the whole matter, at least with repect to the labor costs.
If you have any experience with electrical, and a voltage meter, then this could be easy. If you don't, then I'll try to explain it to you so you can explain it to someone else so they can say "wow that's easy."
Since you have a new alternator and a new battery, this should help you find out EXACTLY what's wrong with it and you can save a LOT of money with costly "let's see if this works" type repairs.
First off, take the voltometer, (not a test light, those are pointless at this point) and test the voltage of the battery with the engine off, between the two terminals. If it's above 11, you're fine. Wait an hour, then check the voltage again, if it has gone down say... more than half a volt, you've got a short circuit. if it hasn't changed more than a few hundreths of a volt, then so far so good.
Start the vehicle, and leave it running for the duration of these tests.
2. Test the voltage between the two battery terminals. If it's more than 13.8, you're ok, 14 and up is preferred. lower than 12 indicates a dead alternator, dead/dying battery, or a big electrical problem if those have been replaced already. If this is the case, bring your car to a parts store, most of them like Advance Auto and such will test these for free. If the voltage difference is below 13.5 it means you could have a bad ground or charging wire somewhere so we move on to step 3.
(Keep engine running)
3. Now comes the fun part, test between the alternator's positive terminal, the one separate red wire coming off of the alternator housing, and the positive terminal on the battery. If there's a difference of more than .1 volts there's a problem with that wire. It's the one that charges the battery, and a common culprit.
4. Test between the frame (any unpainted bolt on the frame will do for this) and the negative battery terminal. Once again, a .1 volt difference is bad. This means that the negative battery terminal is not properly grounded to the frame.
After that, test between the negative battery terminal and the engine block to test that wire. Just make sure it's an unpainted surface when testing.
Lastly for the ground wires, test between the alternator housing and negative battery terminal. You're basically looking for a sharp increase in the voltage difference to indicate that the electricity isn't flowing between any of the grounded parts, the negative terminal, frame, engine, and alternator housing.
I replaced my battery, and my alternator, and the garages said "everything seems fine" but THIS was how I found out that I had a bad ground wire which gave me an increase in everything electrical after I fixed it, and solved the problems.
If it's not the wires, and you're getting 14+ volts between battery terminals, with less than the indicated differences in voltage, then the problem is not with your charging system, the electricity isn't getting to the spark plugs correctly. Ignition Coils on these go fairly quickly, but if you haven't replaced the spark plugs and wires yet, I'd go with that first, then get the ignition coil looked at if the problem persists.
Hope this helped, I had 2 dealerships and a garage tell me "generic electrical problems" and one gave me a huge estimate, but I fixed the problem myself with a 7 dollar cable from a parts store. If you're not having the same problem I did, then at least you know what it's not without having to "replace first, figure out problem later."
they will last and the sound will be so much better
but when u switch from park to drive theres a small power drain i can see with the dash lights
and then when u first touch the gas pedal its even a more of a power lose but the car still runs fine
on my dash when this all happens my day lights flash my stereo turns on and off my brake light comes on air bag light and seat belt light. then after a couple of seconds everything is fine.....or if a hit a bump in the road... i know it seems like a short... but were im thinking around the trany or the trany ground... any ideas?
Nothing looked bad or out of place so I plugged the wire harness back onto the dimmer switch and started the car. Now the mileage wont light up at all.
Not sure where to begin or what wires to look for. Please help, thanks.
Also the reverse lights don't come on, she has a manual.
This car has too low miles to be having issues like this, no wonder GM has such a bad rep, this is horrible!
Any help would be appreciated