Multiple electrical issues with the 92 SSEi...

Something'* draining my battery, for starters.

The power door locks don't work. Whenever I disconnect the battery and reconnect it, the power door locks all lock. The switch won't allow them to be unlocked, or lock. And, if I attempt to manually unlock the doors (window down, arm in the door panel area) the lock seems jambed...almost like the power door lock is staying constanly engaged. After ~30 seconds, the actuators let off.

Once in the car, I start it....the Security light stays on for ~30 seconds then goes off.

And, I was hearing a constant clicking noise in the rear. I traced it down to the latch assembly for the fuel door. I unplugged that harness to get that clicking to go away.

I think the door lock issue is related to the Security light. Is there a relay that controls the door locks? If so, where'* it located?

BTW, I have already unplugged the ELC. That'* out of the question.

Mark... most of these issues are most likely being caused by the water issues the car had and the grounding buss by the drivers door. Please clean up that buss and see if it fixes most of the issues.

X2. Those symptoms sound almost exactly like a similar wet ground buss thread posted earlier this year.

The security light may be a different animal. Remove the trunk lid unsulator carpet and disconnect the electrical plug to the trunk lock assembly tamper cable. See if that solves the security light issue.

I'll try both of those!

Sounds like the grounding buss is the culprit for lots of issues on the car.

....begins searching for that grounding buss cleaning thread........

I removed the driver'* seat and pulled the carpet back. The padding is soaked. No doubt that a replacement is in order. Carpet is likely salvagable if I can get it to dry out well enough. I really need to find the leak (will read Don'* thread).

Anywho...that buss looked great.


All of the wiring looks OK in that area. Is this the same buss that is suspect? Still looks like new. :?

The security light did go out. I think it'* a key issue.

I had a similar situation when I was troubleshooting a remote starter installed by someone else. An error in wiring was providing +12v to the lock wire and "disabled" the power lock function and drained the battery. I'd first verify the presence of positive voltage on the lock wire (LT BLU) at both switches to see if we are on the right track. Once verified, we can track down where the problem is. Since the locks are triggered by +12v rather than ground, a pinched wire (short to ground) is not the problem.

IIRC, there are multible buss connectors on both sides of the car. Some are common grounds, others are a distribution for interior lights, etc. You might want to peek at the others while you have the carpet back.

I carefully inspected both grounding busses. Both look great.

Furthermore, the electrical under the carpet all looks OK.

I checked the volts at each the switches. Here'* what I found on both switches:

Red/Light Blue - 12 volts
Red/Black - 12 volts
Light Blue/Black - 0 volts

I have the interior completely gutted (including headliner). So, I have very easy access to wires to help nail this thing down.

Just to update the team, Mark and I were able to find a problem with the power lock relays. There was an internal short from the +12v input to the lock wire (gray if I remember correctly).

Just wondering if you had a chance to replace it yet, Mark.

Randy, thank you again for your help the other night! I really appreciate it.

I went to the yard yesterday and picked up two replacement relays (can't hurt to have a spare, right?!?!). Plugged in the first one, still had the same behaviors. Confused...I plugged in the other relay. Worked like a charm! I happened to grab another bad relay from a Bonneville. Maybe this problem isn't as rare as we thought.... :?

I'm back in business and the interior is back together. That relay also seemed to solve my constant latching/unlatching I was getting from the gas door. And, I'm hoping this issue was causing my battery to run dead. I left the battery connected over night. This evening will be the true test!