hello fellow members. thank you for having me, im new to the forum. but I've been on here many times. decided to join. I've searched my problem for days, came close to the problem with no go.

here goes: I have a 2004. I was running the engine with the hood open. all of a sudden, I see smoke coming from the side were the battery goes. turn car off smoke stopped. turned car back on, and it smoked again. darn.

so I pulled the battery out and saw some burned wires several. they lead to the fuse box. I took apart the fuse box. under the fuse box there is 3 wire harnesses. I found out the call the c1, c2, c3. the one in the middle, I believe is called c3. that's were all my burned wires connected to that harness. I disconnected, the middle one to trace the wires. there was one wire that completely burned up. when it burned the insulation on that wire got so hot that it burned the insulation on 6 other wires. gee

I've been looking for wire diagrams/schematics to identify which wire was initially burned, and the other wires that got there insulation burned. been searching for awhile, to id those wires. called the stealership, and they said that wire harness is called instrument panel wire harness, and the want 4900 for the wire harness. I

I was able to bring the entire wire harness inside the car to get a better look, its bad. so I wrote down all the wires and there color, along with were they go in the c3 socket. here is what I got.

f1 black wire burned insulation leaving bear wire that's still connected
c4 grey wire burned ........................................ ............................
d4 purple.................................. ........................................ ..........
e6 green( 2 green go there, only 1 got insulation burned
b9 orange wire burned insulation leaving bear wire that's still connt
d11, not sure what color as the entire wire got burned and broke, believe its purple. not sure. I believe this is the wire that shorted out and started everything. but don't know were it goes too, in order to look at that component for failure or shorts. also don't know were the other wires with the burned insulation go to.

I don't plan on buying that 4900 dollar harness, but would like to run new wire, to its prospected locations, but don't have a clue were they go. dash torn apart, and it branches off with another harness under the pass side floor.

sorry about the long post, any help would be great. I respond quickly. again thank you, and thanks for the forum invite.

 

There are used wiring harnesses from parts cars and wrecking yards. But trace a good harness to help figure out what drew the current and then fix the problem before installing the replacement unit.

 

I agree with above, a used harness might be your best bet, but this should not have happened in the first place. All wiring is protected by fuses, circuit beakers or fuse able links. You need to find out the cause before you repair/replace the harness and it happens again. That would really suck!
Look carefully at the fuse boxes and the starter. Make sure the fuses are not oversized or jumped. Make sure the fuse links are at the starter and not replaced with standard wire.
Check anything aftermarket that was added and wired without protection.
Take some pics and post so we can help determine what circuits have burnt.

 

thanks for the reply. if I take pics, the wire harness is no longer under the fuse box. the wire harness is inside the car and you will only see a wire harness with burned wires. should I still take the pics? thanks again.

 

Welcome to the Forum

You're about to get hammered with a bunch of wiring schematics

 

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go for it. im ready. took some pics but couldn't upload for some reason. the only over sized fuses were #8 and # 10. which is the headlamp low beam. left and right side. replaced with correct one. didn't check starter, but I will in the morning. thanks

 

hopefully I can find a used wire harness that the yard took there time to take out of car(fat chance). if I find the components they go to, ill just rewire those componets. im not installing anything until I get where the problem came from.

 

I have the 2004 wiring schematics and confirmed the middle connector is C3. However none of the wire colors match the locations you identified.

I think you are misreading the wire locations on the connector. I have scanned the info on C3 for you to look at. I can get much more or get you everything I have but I will have to make a DVD and mail it to you since we are talking a LOT of megabytes.





2004 Engine Fuse Box C3 Page 1






2004 Engine Fuse Box C3 Page 2

 

Thank you dadaroo. I will double check when I get home.

 

I looked at my pic I took lastnight. The first or last row has a grey wire, green w/ white strip, and purple wire. I believe thats row "a". I also saw a video on YouTube were a guy tapped into the purple wire to add his aftermarket fog lights. His wire colors are exactly like mine. Are your schematics from 04? Maybe I have a late 03. But I know the car is an 04. And I truly believe my locations and colored wires are correct. Ill triple check again. When I get home. Thanks again.

 

Hope I am right. Also, I think can get you the P/N for new pins in case you want to replace them in lieu of splicing into the existing wires that go into the connector. There may be one or two different sizes based on the wire gauge.

Make sure you look at the plastic connector design above as the top (F) and bottom (A) row look similar but ARE different. Top has two "****" and the bottom has one. They are also normally numbered into the plastic to help.

Mr. Sam (aka dadaroo)

 

Just saw your post. YES, it is from 2004. Not sure if I have 2003. I do have 2001 and C3 does not match your original numbering. When I get home I will compare 01 and 04.

 

i think I put a pic of my c3 wire harness. im a million percent sure that the above is the correct colors and location. I found a video on youtube. if you google " locating the wire for adding foglight to a c5 z06" -youtube. the video has the exact same color and wire location, as mine. the funny part is, I don't have a z06.

 

great the picture made it. my top left is my a1. and you can see bottom right, is the wire I believe started it all.

 

more info. I just got this car in july. and im finding new things daily. today, I found that the pervious owner put a z06 wire harness in the car. why do people do that? that entire wire harness is wrapped in black electrical tape. my next question is: are all 3 wire harnesses c1, c2, c3 etc. is it one entire harness? or 3 separate wire harnesess? thanks again guys. seems like im starting from scratch. geee

 

I can't find any info on whether the 3 connectors get wrapped together or not.

Sorry, I can't tell anything from the picture. Remember, when you view the female pin outs in the picture I provided the wires exit from the other side so make sure you are not incorrectly calling out locations

I did compare the 01 and 04 C3 connector. Wire colors are the same except A7 and A8 are not used in 04.

PS: There are no differences in the ZO6 connectors. Some wires are just not installed like the Fog light. This is common among many things in the car where options are not there.

 

Thanks alot for all your research and effort into this. The locations that I spoke about above are from the wire side, not the female pinout side. I did alil research. And I found out I beleive the wire at d11 is brown and goes to the headlight switch. My guess is the pervious owner wired the pod gauges to the headlight switch, put in bigger fuses, and it overloaded the circuit. And being the fuses are oversized, thats why the never blew. Still pulling out the instrument wire harness, tracking the burnt up wires. The entire lenth of the wire is fried, and it melted the insulation on other wires. Ill keep things posted.thanks again dadaroo

 

D11 should not be used. I can' imagine you have a harness different from what the GM design is. Does not make sense. If we need to discuss on the phone that might help. I am going to PM you my number. I am positive you are NOT correctly calling out the pin outs. You need to look at the female side of the connector and that is the side from where you locate the pin ID.

Once we resolve the correct numbering I can tell you where every wire goes to.

 

Ok. Whats a good time to buzz you? And what time zone are you in? Thanks again.

 

I live in SC on the east coast. I am retired so the best time to catch me is in the morning or around supper time. If not home leave your phone number and I will call you back. Mr. Sam