ELC Issue
 

Greetings one and all. I need help. I have searched this forum for hours trying to find my answer, but I haven't been successful. Thus any assistance you can give would be greatly appreciated.

My car: 1997 SSE.

It is equipped with ELC. But not CCR. It also has the air station in the trunk with the on/off and lockout switches.

When I first got the car, the ELC worked. However, some time in the past it quit. I don't know for sure when. And I have known for some time that it was out, and just haven't bothered to figure out what is wrong.

When I began recently trying to troubleshoot the problem, I found the following:

The ELC does not work. Neither does the air station in the trunk. Pushing the on/off button had no effect. No sounds no nothing. After researching here, I found the maxi-fuse in the block under the hood. I found 1 fuse (30) amp that was bad. I replaced it. With that fuse replaced...the ELC still does not work, but now when I push the on/off button on the air station in the trunk...I hear a clicking sound coming from the relay in the trunk. That did not happen before. So fixing the 30 amp fuse has restored power to something. But the ELC still doesn't work, and the air station still does not work.

I have searched the other 2 fuse blocks (driver side and passenger side under the dash and I have found no other fuses that I can see have a connection to the ELC. I did find a relay (larger 4 prong item) under the passenger side dash. But replacing it seemed to have no effect.

My questions:

1. Am I missing a fuse or other relay somewhere, and if so, where is that fuse or relay?

2. Or, is it just a bad compressor?

3. If it is the compressor, does anyone have the part number and the price?

4. Where for sure is the compressor in the 97 SSE so I can find and replace it.

Thanks in advance for any and all help.

Gary

possible bad compressor.
jy is the best place, it is located behind the right rear wheel, underneath the quarter panel.

Go underneath the car and find the yellow wire (on the wire harness for the compressor), ground it. if the compressor doesn't start, it is bad. the ign key must be in the acc or run position to work the compressor

Agreed. Probably a bad compressor. And when it went bad..it heated up and blew that fuse.

You are in good hands with Sonoma watching this thread...he's the "King" of ELC fixing. ;)

So then, can I assume from there are no other fuses in play here?

Also, do any of you know off hand what the part number is for the compressor?

Thanks again

Gary

according to gmpartsdirect

22153324

$365 shipped

wow, that is way more than I had imagined.

that is why we said junkyard, just make sure they test it or you can bring it back if it doesn't work. any h body in that year range will work 96-99

also check out the notice section, you sig pic is too big :)

Is that accessed from inside the trunk or from the wheel well?

Thanks

crawl under the right rear corner of the car, behind the tire

OK, I got under the car this evening and found the compressor. Didn't try the yellow wire to ground trick. Just wanted to find it and take a look at the hookups. Anyway I noticed that the air line coming out of the compressor is broken. It comes out of the compressor. Goes to a T connector. One end of then goes to a connector in the axle brace I believe. The other end however is broken. But what is weird is that the broken end doesn't look like it was actually supplying air to anything. I found where it connected and that end looked like it was a solid connector that allowed no air to flow. I am probably wrong though. It also looked like that end was connected to some part of the compressor assembly.

What was I seeing? and Could this be the problem?

Thanks again.

Gary