confusing electrical problem...at least thats what it acts like!

To start with, this is my girl friends car, so I only have her story to tell and to go by.

The problem started when she broke the serpetine belt which was because the power steering pulley busted. Well when the belt went it took all the wires to the a/c clutch with it. The power steering pulley was replaced, installed a new a/c clutch and repaired the wire damage near the a/c clutch, installed a new belt. Should be good to go, right? WRONG! Now it has no brake lights (they wroked fine before the belt broke) The cruise will not work (it worked fine before the belt broke) The anti lock brakes light stays on all the time (it never stayed on before the belt broke) I have checked every fuse I can find for the brake lights and cruise, none are blown. Infact every fuse I pulled and looked at was good.

I am in need of some advice to help me fix this. I am not a GM person so I could be over looking something very simple, I just dont know what it could be.

PLEASE HELP ME !!!!!!

Thanks in advance

I could not see why the cruise control, brakes would not work and anti-lock brakes light to stay on after the serpentine belt broke.

Who brought the car in the shop? You or your girlfriend?

It sounds fishy to me.

I would do this instead. Aside from the fuse inside the vehicle, there are fuses/relays on the side of the engine bay (passenger side).

Remove the tires and check the anti-lock brake sensor and it's wires to make sure they are tight.

Most cruise control is controlled by a vacuum and the vacuum hose is located on the engine bay (driver side). It connects inside the vehicle and on the engine bay with a black round plastic.

Under the brake pedal, there is a cruise control vacuum switch. Make sure the cruise control switch is not pushed out or broken and make sure the vacuum hose on the cruise control switch is still attached.

Higher above the brake pedal is the brake light switch. There is a level that moves when the brake pedal is applied or released. Make it is fine and the wires going to it is fine.

Well I hauled it to the shop, so I guess I took it to the mechanic. The mechanic says that he checked all the fuses...engine bay area, glove box area, and I think he said under steering column, or in that area. I personally checked the fuses in the glove box. At that time I didnt know there were other fuse locations. But he said all fuses are good. And I trust his word. I dont know if he checked ALB sensors or not.....or the brake pedal switches for the cruise + brake lights. But I will check them out next chance i get to look at it in the daylight. It just seems very strange to me that all this worked fine before the belt incident and now this.

My 94 cutlass ceirra ABS light came on about two years ago. At the same time the cruise control went out. After a google search, I found a post that said if one or both of the rear window brake lights are out, it could cause this. Two 1141 light bulbs later and the ABS light went out and the cruise control works fine! I have no idea why the bad rear window brake light would cause this, but I sure am glad replacing the lamps fixed it!!!

Light bulbs huh? Well I will give it a try. I have checked and double checked everything else :banghead: , havent found anything wrong. But never thought to check those bulbs you mentioned. Thanks for the heads up!!!

No problem. Reply back if that fixes the problem. Paul

i had been searching everything in my car for over a month.. the brakes worked fine but the abs light was on and my criuise control was dead... so i looked and sure enough the middle brake lights were out.. so i replaced them and teh abs light turned off... thanks for the idea i woulda never thought to check the bulbs

I was experiencing the ABS fault light coming on on our 92 Cutlass Supreme. I noticed that the light would come on occasionally after signalling for a lane change or turn. This went on for over a year and recently became a consistant occurance. Stopping the car and restarting it would clear the ABS fault light. It turned out to be bad contacts on the turn signal switch. I took the switch apart and bent the copper contacts so that they would exert more pressure and this has cleared up the problem. The switch looks like the two halves are riveted together however if you wiggle the upper part, it will come apart.

Now if I could only figure out what is causing the horn to honk occasionbally on it's own, I would be pleased. Our car has the steering wheel that has the radio and AC control buttons on it. The brass contacts on the ring that rides above the turn signal switch was worn and I filled the gaps in with solder and this maybe the reason.

Larry