Posted recently about a recurring blown tail fuse. Took apart the tail lights and rear hatch interior panels to find prev owner tried to install a power latch. I can't make sense of all of the wiring and everything due to lack of experience, however I know enough to realize I'm dealing with a real issue. I'll attach the relevant pictures in blind faith that somebody may know how to safely remove this aftermarket mess and restore it back to factory default.

 

Just replace the light sockets. You can get all new ones at the parts store. Just change em out; odds of getting a bunch of wasted crap like that to work right and STAY working long enough to even back down the driveway, are somewhere between zero and ... zero.

A license should be required to buy dykes. It should be a felony to TOUCH a pr without passing some kind of an electrical knowledge exam. Some people (like that car's PO) should be barred FOREVER from owning such a powerful tool. Never have figured out why, you hand a pr of those to some typical yutz like that moron there, and all the sudden, EVERY WIRE IN THE WORLD looks too long. Damn shame there's people like that in the world. If I was going to pour chlorine in the human gene pool, that's the kind of stain I'd be looking to erase with it.

 

Trying to find the ground wire for the tailights coming into the trunk. I can see where it was connected to the frame but there is a black wire that was either cut or fell out of its splice just hanging out of the tailight wiring. Should that one be my ground? How can I find out?

 

If memory serves the ground wire is under a screw near the left taillight.

Black = ground. All ground is the same. (or ideally, is supposed to be, anyway, subject to its current-carrying capacity) If the bulbs have a path from the side opposite power, for current from power through the bulb to somehow find its way back to the negative batt terminal, then it doesn't so much matter whether it's a wire in a harness (the factory would have done it that way if they wanted to just plug it in during assy rather than deal with an extra piece of hardware) or if it goes straight to the body near the bulb (i.e. they wanted the harness to be more a "part of" the body section it was attached to). Which philosophy was chosen, doesn't alter the electrical reality.

 

Thank you, I located and reconnected the ground. Turns out, it fell out of the PO shoddy splice.
Tail lights are now powered. Except for right turn signal bulbs (there are two). Both of my signals will turn on in dash and front however they don't flash front or rear. Flasher relay? With the signal stall in the neutral position, Right signal arrow stays illuminated. Signal switch going bad?

 

Also, as a side note, my hazards fully function. Are there two separate flasher relays? One for hazards and one for turn signals?

 

Yes there are 2 flashers. There is no "flasher relay".

Your problem can't be the flasher if the left works right.

More likely, it's a messed up socket or a bulb in the socket wrong or something wired wrong.

 

Hi Tempest89 ,

First and foremost , welcome to TGO !

Now , as to what you've got , we'll start at the beginning . The power latch release / power trunk lid pull down is not something aftermarket that the P.O. tried to install , our cars have these items factory installed even on the lowest optioned models (Like my base model 'Bird , for instance) . What usually happens is that either the unit malfunctions all by itself , or it get broken by someone slamming the trunk . Usually , these failures cause the pull down motor to run continuously and that's usually when folks will try to do the old "I'll just cut it all out and make it a regular good ol slam it shut trunk" , the wire cutters come into play , and then it's off to the races with the fast & furious wire cutting . Then the poor next owner (like you) gets to deal with the cut up mess of wiring . Thankfully the damage to the harness don't look all that bad in that if all the wiring gets restored , color for color , all should be OK again with the lights . But that broken trunk pull down (see the broken clear plastic piece ? That's where the actual motor was that used to pull down the trunk and now looks to be missing all together , the other metal cylinder that looks like a motor actually being the solenoid that releases the trunk with the dash mounted trunk release button ) will need to be replaced if you ever want it to function again . If the power trunk pull down is desired to function rather than a slam close trunk your two options there would be to either try to find a good pull down unit in a junkyard , kinda the same odds as hitting the lottery , or a replacement could be sourced by the regular TGO member "Top Down Solutions" who specializes in replacement parts for the power accessories our cars came with (like the power trunk and pop up headlights for example) .

Now , the lights ;

First off , see that brown paste in the sockets ? Looks flippin NASTY , don't it ? Believe it or not that is factory applied anti corrosion grease that if still somewhat pasty and not all dried out is not any kinds of problem and in fact if you were to replace those sockets for new it would be best to apply new anti corrosion paste to the new bulbs & sockets to keep them from corroding to the point of a bad connection .

The P.O.'s use of "butt splices" , those blue wire joiners , has to naturally be redone with a proper , soldered "Western Union splice" being used to join the wires instead . The general idea will be to take one wire at a time coming out of the harness where it passes through the body and leads into the trunk , and properly reconnect them to the right colored wires at each of the lights .

For the proper wire colors for each light , off the top of my head I can tell you for certain that a brown wire will be the tail lights , side marker lights , and the license plate light . I'm fairly certain that a yellow wire will be your left turn signal and a dark green wire should be your right turn signal . I'm less sure of the brakelights but a light blue wire sounds familiar but either way going exact color to exact color will never do you wrong as long as you pay mind of the "tracer" colors . For example in automotive wiring you could see a yellow with a white tracer and a yellow with a red tracer , those are not the same circuit and the differing color tracers are indicative of that fact .

I notice in your pictures that your license plate indicates your not close to eastern Massachusetts , I kinda wish you were cause If you could stop by I could repair those lighting wires in about a half hour's time and as a favor to a fellow third gen owner I'd do it for free , just for the fun of it .

The power trunk wires will be repaird in the same way as the lighting wires will , but you may find yourself somewhat "Sticker shocked" when you price the new pulldown unit , they are one Hell of a lot more expensive than one would imagine due the the relative rarity of finding a good one "in the wild" .

So search out how to do a properly soldered Western Union splice , using heat shrinkable tubing instead of tape to protect the connection and if you do come to wanting a schematic reference to work from search out the site "Austin Third Gen" as most of the wiring schematics for our cars are hosted there .

Best of luck and if you have any questions feel free to ask .

PS , don't bother trying to diagnose any turn signal faults till you get those wires all properly reconnected , as they are the source of why your turn signals don't work right ......

 

I've seen a lot worse wiring; that isn't really that bad. Yes butt splices are not perfect but when done well they're not going to cause you issues, either. The rear hatch pull-down is not aftermarket, and looks to need a replacement motor.

Get a factory manual. Learn how to read it.

That will answer all of your questions.

 

Butt splices are not acceptable nor allowed in Aircraft wiring , and as such since they are not allowed where actual lives are on the line , then in MY opinion they are not acceptable for automotive work , either . I have seen MULTIPLE instances of butt splices failing in automotive wiring applications and have never , not once , seen a properly soldered connection fail .

As my last thought on butt splices , tell me , exactly how many did GM wire the car with from the factory ? Exactly NONE ! And there is Damn good reason for that .

The Original Poster was right upfront with the fact that wiring is not his strong suit , so just glibly posting things like "buy a manual and learn how to read it" is of no real help for him whatsoever , the manual will provide information for an experienced automotive electrician to work from as a reference , but the manual will NOT teach someone how to be an automotive electrician who has no prior wiring experience .

I guess you musta just been a born expert , huh ?

 

Wow you like to type.. a lot. Have you considered writing a book?

The manual isn't exactly rocket science. It has a whole guide on how to read the diagrams. It has picture references of all connector types. Genuinely, it's the best thing I've bought for my car!

Furthermore, I never said not to solder. I said butt splices are not perfect. I'm not sure how me noting 'when done well they're not going to cause you issues' is a full on enforcement. It's just a fact.

Carry on.

 

Yea , the answer got a bit "bookish" , thanks for noticing ...

Just so you know ,

The OP sent me a PM and asked me to come to his thread here and help him out since he doesn't know a lot about car electrical work , and short of giving him some snide "buy the book and figure it out for yourself" answer , YES INDEED the answer I gave him was bound to get a bit , wordy .

If you have such a problem reading the posts of one third gen owner trying to help out another , have you ever considered that a maybe a CHAT forum , where people use actual words , sentences and paragraphs to explain things to each other , may well not be a place you should be reading ?

 

PS , I hope like Hell the next time YOU have a question for the forum , folks give you the same kind of "helpful" answer you gave the OP ...

In as few words as possible , of course .................

 

You know what they say.. give man a fish.. (you know the rest )

I was directing him towards the tool that will help him in the long-run. He also had been given some information, so there was no need to re-iterate what had been stated already. Sorry if I didn't hold his hand enough for your liking. /shrug

 

Funny that , I never remember saying a word about your lack of "hand holding" , I believe it was the snippy "buy a book and learn to read it" douchebag answer that I thought was rather rude , coupled with the "advice" to use the butt splices when a clearly better method of wire joining exists .

 

... or maybe you took my comments the wrong way and now you're the one who looks 'rather rude.' Just sayin. There is nothing wrong with pointing someone to a factory manual. I also never advised him to use butt splices. Slow down and work on reading comprehension.

 

Yep , this don't look condescending in the least .........

 

Or , gee , maybe we just close the whole forum down to all future posts , and just post up a printed statement that anyone with a question should just


"BUY THE BOOK AND LEARN HOW TO READ IT"



Guess then you'll be happy , eh ?

 

Political speech writer by day , eh ?

Must be , since "but when done well they're not going to cause you issues , either" sure looks like and endorsement of their use from where I'm sitting .

Yep , reading comprehension , indeed ...........

 

I'm pretty sure you're the only one spinning a negative perspective from my reply. Have fun being so.. angry? I still stand by my statement that a) they don't hurt when done properly, but b) I did not advise him to use them moving forward. He didn't even ask how to splice a wire.

I'm done here.

 

Thank God ...........