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Drivers door control switch issues, REDUCE ENGINE POWER

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Old Nov 26, 2006 | 04:33 AM
  #1  
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Default Drivers door control switch issues, REDUCE ENGINE POWER

Well today a funny thing happened on the car. First off its a 1999 6 speed. I was driving home and went to roll down the drivers window but the switch was not working. The lights were not lighting up and the bottons did not work. I left it over night and drove the car again today. The switch panel was still not working but the car kept acting up. All the gauges would peg in the red and the car would get the reduce engine power display. If I turned the car off and restarted it it was fine. My key fob would work then stop working, and I had to manually lock the drivers door even if the fob was working. The heater control lights would stay on in the car after I locked it up. So basically the car was just really acting up, a lot of small problems. I had the Reduce Engine Power display a while back and I cleaned all the grounds and tightened the battery conections which stopped it.

So I did a search on the forums and found these threads helpfull.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...ighlight=fuses

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1354920


I could not wait till the morning and went out side and wiggled the plastic piece were the wires go into the door when you open it. After a couple of minutes messing with it I got the lights to come on and the switches started working again. It was cold outside so I did not investigate further. Im planning on messing with it tomorrow and wanted to see if any of you had any advice.

What does wiggling the wires do? Is it a bad ground, bad connection? I just wnat to have a plan of attack. Also I figured posting this thread might help somebody down the road as it seems like a regular problem. If its hard to read sorry, Its late and I just wanted to get this posted.

Cisco
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Old Nov 26, 2006 | 06:47 AM
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If you pull the rubber accordian shaped duct loose to expose the harness inside, look by the 2 plugs and you'll see 1 wire with a clear plastic sleeve, this sleeve may have slid back letting the wire short to the frame.
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Old Nov 26, 2006 | 01:40 PM
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Thanks man I am going outside to mess with it in a few.
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Old Nov 26, 2006 | 05:20 PM
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Had this exact same issue on mine.
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Old Nov 26, 2006 | 08:08 PM
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Well I got a late start today and landed up just fiddling with the wires a little. I didnt take anything apart, but I kept moving the wires and felt were the connection is incase the problem is ongoing. But the problem was definitly in the door passage thing.
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Old Nov 27, 2006 | 09:54 AM
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Mine on my 98 vert turned out to be a loose connector on the door control module. It caused the driver's side door panel to not operate and started a whole series of codes to be thrown by on the DIC. This leads to a series of electrical system failures which will lead to "Reduced Engine Power code. Read the codes and it will eventually lead you to the source the source...clear and try again. Remember that the whole electrical sytem on the interior relies on a successful series of readings.
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Old Dec 1, 2006 | 04:01 PM
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How weird. The exact same thing happened to me yesterday.
I have had my car since the end of June and it has been problem free.

I hope it is just the harness in the door. which makes sense - I got the dreaded service everything right after I hit the brakes on the freeway this morning.
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Old Dec 2, 2006 | 12:43 PM
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FER-Z06 hit the nail on the head! Thats one of the most COMMON causes of door module issues. I was on a business trip (200 miles away from home) and the car went haywire! Same symptoms you had! Luckily, I saw the drivers door control panel fail as I was rolling up the window and was able to correlate the problem to that module/wiring harness.

I just pulled the accordion tube off the door frame, exposed the plugs (TWO) and the issue was very apparent! The bare wire with the clear tubing was shorting out some of the pins in the plug. I just slid the tube back down and temporary fixed the issue. Depending on what it shorts out, you could have different symptoms or even destroy other stuff!!

BC
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Old Dec 2, 2006 | 09:51 PM
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Here is what you are looking for:

mine are now secured with electrical tape.

door jam

Close up

Thanks again......
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Old Dec 6, 2006 | 09:39 PM
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Excellent Pictures!!

Bc
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Old Mar 6, 2007 | 07:22 PM
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Geez, should of checked the forum first.

Same issues, but I started checking fuses first. With no issues there, I when to the forum.

Wiggled my accordian tube, and lights and power.

Thanks, everone
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Old Mar 6, 2007 | 08:21 PM
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The female terminals will loose tension overtime as well. While you are in there I would recommend bending the tabs a little bit to increase terminal contact.
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Old Mar 6, 2007 | 09:17 PM
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Originally Posted by backnblack2003z06
The female terminals will loose tension overtime as well. While you are in there I would recommend bending the tabs a little bit to increase terminal contact.

Good Info!! Female pins are always subject!!! You need a suitable male pin to properly check the female pins. If there loose,,fix them or replace them.

BC
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Old Mar 6, 2007 | 09:53 PM
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the friday after valentines day i pulled the tcs plug while installing a catch can. the saturday after valentines day i started getting codes, check engine, tcs, ah, and reduced power, sounded like a stutter box and the bell dinging. just had to shut it off to have some sanity. this repeated itself off and on that sat night until i had to leave it at a club members house and drive my wifes 89 home with the kid in the hatch area. yeah, she rubbed it in about my fancy 03 Z breaking down and have to drive a lowly 89 home. next day we picked it up on the trailer and took it home and on monday i spent my holiday cleaning grounds on the car after reading the stick from bill curlee about the grounds and other threads about some of the same issues.
codes were: p1514
c1247
c1278
b2204
b2282
b2284
u1255
u1064
u1016
b2283
b2285
u1255
u1064
u1016
u1096
then i spent the next two weeks driving short trips here and there and nothing happened. then last friday on the way to the club meeting it did the same thing. this time i knew how to clear the codes and got the car home. no problem on the way home, about 40 miles.
code was: p1514
i was thinking that the problem was the tcs module, but after reading this thread, and some of the codes that kicked out, that maybe it is in the door harness.
some of you guys out here are a wealth of knowledge on the c5's, i am just a noobe here. all my experiences have been with the c3's and c4's. thanks.
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