Desperately Need Help - 1995 Pa Ultra

[PYROMANIAK777]

When I got this car the climate control box was dead, but the AC would come on when the car turned on. A few months later, I discovered, after arriving in Palm Springs, CA, that the AC would not turn off even though the key was out of the ignition. I had to pull the 30amp fuse out from the fuse box under the hood to get the AC to turn off.

Today a friend of mine looked at the climate control box and determined that a broken solder was possibly to blame for the non-working climate control box. He re-soldered the broken connection and we plugged the box back into the car. Before we actually started the car we replaced the 30amp fuse. To my surprise, the AC didnt come on as it had been doing. So we proceeded to start the car and found that the car wouldnt start at all. Nothing...almost like a dead battery except for the fact that according to the volt meter, the battery is fine at 12 volts. But the instrument panel battery gauge shows a dead battery. Dash, glovebox and overhead lights all come on but pulse and make a 'clicking' sound.

We unplugged the climate control box but nothing changed. We pulled the 40amp "horn" fuse and the pulsing and clicking stopped. The car wont start via jump cables from another vehicle either.

Any ideas?

[wrightz28]

Sounds like you may have fried the cars ECM. Especially if the soldering was done in car and without a ground strap. You can try and see if it just had a seisure and reset it by disconnecting the battery for a few min. but that would be my guess.

[PYROMANIAK777]

THe soldering was done after the unit was removed, it was one component that had the solder joints broken and it was moving around, we soldered it back in place, then plugged it into the car. Thanks for your feedback, we'll try that.

[PYROMANIAK777]

Originally Posted by wrightz28

Sounds like you may have fried the cars ECM. Especially if the soldering was done in car and without a ground strap. You can try and see if it just had a seisure and reset it by disconnecting the battery for a few min. but that would be my guess.

OK, I disconnected the battery for a good while, came back, hooked it up, checked voltage and found it at 8v, jumped it, and checked voltage as it was charging and found it at 14v, got in, tried to start it, and it's doing the same th9ing it was doing after we plugged in the AC control module. The control module is out, and the fuse for that circuit is out of the car as well, I turn the key to the on position and there's a ticking sound coming from the glove box area, I see the glove box light tick tick tick/flickering with the ticking sound, as well as all the rest of the electrical in the car, the map light, the in dash volt meter guage, and that readsa in the red, while the car is still jumped to the other vehicle. Then I disconnected the cables between the cars, and check voltage on the battery. It's at 12.19V and every 15 seconds dropped down voltage by -.01 decrements 12.18v...12.17v... and so on. I'm thinking there's a short somewhere, or a bad ground, but don't have the slightest clue where to start... don't have a manual either.. is there some kind of online manual I would be able to find? Any Ideas on what the problem could be at this point?

[PYROMANIAK777]

Originally Posted by wrightz28

Sounds like you may have fried the cars ECM. Especially if the soldering was done in car and without a ground strap. You can try and see if it just had a seisure and reset it by disconnecting the battery for a few min. but that would be my guess.

OK, I disconnected the battery for a good while, came back, hooked it up, checked voltage and found it at 8v, jumped it, and checked voltage as it was charging and found it at 14v, got in, tried to start it, and it's doing the same th9ing it was doing after we plugged in the AC control module. The control module is out, and the fuse for that circuit is out of the car as well, I turn the key to the on position and there's a ticking sound coming from the glove box area, I see the glove box light tick tick tick/flickering with the ticking sound, as well as all the rest of the electrical in the car, the map light, the in dash volt meter guage, and that readsa in the red, while the car is still jumped to the other vehicle. Then I disconnected the cables between the cars, and check voltage on the battery. It's at 12.19V and every 15 seconds dropped down voltage by -.01 decrements 12.18v...12.17v... and so on. I'm thinking there's a short somewhere, or a bad ground, but don't have the slightest clue where to start... don't have a manual either.. is there some kind of online manual I would be able to find? Any Ideas on what the problem could be at this point? OH, and the ECM... is there a way we could check to see if that's still good? How much does replacing one of those go for? Probably 1arm, and 1 leg.

[wrightz28]

Off the wall, how old is hte battery? Sounds like it's draining a little too quickly.

[PYROMANIAK777]

Originally Posted by wrightz28

Off the wall, how old is hte battery? Sounds like it's draining a little too quickly.

I'm not sure, but if the car was going to start, wouldn't it have started when it was hooked up to the other vehicle? Even when it was charging the dash meter read 0V and it was actually at 14V... That is a place to start though...I do think it's about time for a new battery.. what sucks is we were gonna sell the car, we tried to fix the A/C module, and the can of worms burst..

[wrightz28]

Look at the month life on the battery sticker, is it's due, might as well elimate it from the picture, and if it were already weak or damaged, whatever fluke occurance that's happened here could be just what it needed to be killed off.

All things aside, it would seem to be kind of like a poor connection/low power issue.

Ultimately, I'd go back to square one, and find out what exactly the wires were that were soldered together, vacinity of the work. I'm not sure if the 95's have a seperate BCM (body control module) but given the situation, I'd say it's toasted. This is alot like what happens when somebody tries to use the good old paperclip in OBDII connector to get codes (obviously dosen't work this way).

[PYROMANIAK777]

Originally Posted by wrightz28

Look at the month life on the battery sticker, is it's due, might as well elimate it from the picture, and if it were already weak or damaged, whatever fluke occurance that's happened here could be just what it needed to be killed off.

All things aside, it would seem to be kind of like a poor connection/low power issue.

Ultimately, I'd go back to square one, and find out what exactly the wires were that were soldered together, vacinity of the work. I'm not sure if the 95's have a seperate BCM (body control module) but given the situation, I'd say it's toasted. This is alot like what happens when somebody tries to use the good old paperclip in OBDII connector to get codes (obviously dosen't work this way).

ok, I'll check the battery, I'm the friend that soldered it, and I soldered a component on the board niside the temperature control unit while it was out of the car.. didn't solder anything in car, or any wires or anything that wasn't previously connected... we plugged that control unit with the resoldered component into the dash where it was originally, then put the fuse back in is what we did... now the fuse and the control unit are out of the car, so whatever was affected is in the car seperate from the control unit... I'll check the battery and start there. (The component reads "IRC 9440 PW5A 56ohm 5%", so I'm thinking it's some kind of resistor)

[wrightz28]

Well, I'd either call a dealer and see if they can refrence the part # or wait for one of the more involved guys here, Flatrater maybe? I did a quick search on my end end and didn't get much. I have a funny hunch what it is, but really don't want to get hopes headed down stream if I'm wrong.

[PYROMANIAK777]

Originally Posted by wrightz28

Well, I'd either call a dealer and see if they can refrence the part # or wait for one of the more involved guys here, Flatrater maybe? I did a quick search on my end end and didn't get much. I have a funny hunch what it is, but really don't want to get hopes headed down stream if I'm wrong.

We just took it to a mechanic, and we'll see what that dude says... I have a feeling he's gonna say... I don't know...

[wrightz28]

Definately post the outcome, I'm curious.

[HotZ28]

Your original problem was with the fan speed control moduel located on the firewall on top of the fan box. When it is bad, it will cause the fan to run on high speed with the ignition off. You can buy a new one at a dealer for around $150 or a salvage yard for $50 to $75. Pull the old one out and get the same exact part number as the one you have. I think GM had about five different units that look simular, however have different wire pins and functions. If your car turns over and will not start, it most likley is the PCM or fuel pump. If the motor will not turn over without jumping from another battery, replace your battery. It could have a dead cell! If you have replaced the battery, then
I would guess that the PCM is bad. You can check fuel pressure just by putting a guage on the fuel rail and turning over the motor, however the PCM also controls the relay to the fuel pump in the start mode so you may not get a pressure reading if the PCM is fried.

[PYROMANIAK777]

Here's what went down.
We took it to a mechanic who generalizes, opposed to specializes. They "found 3 shorts behind the dash", and said that us plugging in the control module "caused the short in that area to short out, and that caused the other 2... Very hard to believe, since the only thing done to the control module, was that a component with an impedance value on it was resoldered, perhaps when plugging it in, the harness was moved, and a bare wire did short out, but anyone that knows anything about electricity knows that it takes the path of least resistance, if a wire shorted behind the control module to ground, that's the point of least resistance, and it wouldn't "spring a leak in a couple of other locations, unless it drew so much amperage that the insulation melted, and the wire became exposed in different areas, but he mentioned nothing about a toasted wire, or having to replace one. Anyway, after he fixed the shorts, he didn't want to plug the control module because "it had been tampered with" So we won't know if the control module works or not, but the car is running, and with black leather seats, it's hella hot. Thanks for all the feedback, but that's how the car's staying, because my friend doesn't want to plug in the control box and risk it, he's selling it.

[wrightz28]

I wouldn't plug it in either. The BCM is much like the engine's cpu, all it does is apply grounding to the desired circuit, and if shorted out then it would potentially ground all the circuits and caouse the situation you have. Thus, as I figured, the BCM is/was the culpret and will no doubt do the same damage if plugged in again.

I'd just get another one from the boneyard.