Originally Posted by racerxr

Gentleman don't be scared you don't need a fuse box. you will need to removed the box in the car put it on a bench. The problem is that GM bent a .030 copper wire almost 90 degrees in order to get it to where it needed to be You will have to un- swedge the 4 bolts that run through the fuse box and remove all the fuses and relays. just take a picture or make a chart and even if you don't no biggie the relays will only go in one way and the fuse amperage and location are inside of the cover or in your owners manual. The un-swedging of the captive part of the bolts is the hardest part. I'm all about things being perfect but unless t you can get your hands on 4 more of these bolts this part won't be perfect. I took a pair if vise grips and caught the edge with the first groove in the Jaws and adjusted them so it stopp before destrying everything. just work your way around and when your close they will slip through with a little force. them tips that you are unable to get up against the threads wont hurt anything. Just do it. Once you have it apart its a piece of cake. there is a copper wire .030 in diameter running from the terminal that grounds the relay for the low beams to the terminal in the corner of the C3 purple cover plug. You will see it it is the pink with a white tracer Look carefully at the .030 copper wire running between the two. it has a couple bends in that follow a groove in the plastic. just about half way between there is a bend thats almost 90 degrees. the wire is broken right there. go rip about 10 inches of wire from the garage door opener button on the wall in your garage Most of them use .030 solid copper wire or check the reversing lights they use it to. Or go to home depot and buy the right size . IT MUST BE .030-.031 Remove Carefully loosen the crimp at each of the broken wire in your fuse box so the broken wire can be removed. strip the insulation off the wire you just rip of the wall AFTER YOU ACCURATELY MEASURED IT AND FOUND IT TO BE IDENTICAL TO THE ONE GM PUT IN. and install it in place of the broken one carefully getting it seated in the groove use a small pair of needle nose to recrimp at each end and you are done except for putting it back together. Note I noticed that on the other side I could run another copper wire to the same two terminals so as to give the gound signal two paths to take, just in case it breaks I did this and I suggest you do to. To the guys who bought a new fuse box it will happen again unless they changed the design. When you get the broken wire out you can take a scribe or anything small and pointed to pluck one of the guide corners off on the plastic so the bend is not so severe. that will make it a lifetime repair. when swedging the bolts again just use a small screwdriver to get it way from the bolt. then what I did was I happened to have a cheap set of hole punches for gaskets that had a center hole that fit the bolts real close and the outer tip was tapered so I put a sockey on the head of the bolt so when you hit it with a hammer you don't break any plastic then grab a 3/16 1/4 drive deep socket slide that on the bolt and hit it again "carefully " and that for me it worked out fine and looked pretty good too. This is the final word on the mystery low beam issue. Its only about a six pack worth of work and the parts are free. Im slow as hell and once I accidentaly found the problem after 2 days of looking I was done in two hours but my garage door doesn't work anymore and my girlfriend is pissed.. If you need pictures call or email me. Tom (916) 474-5769
One more thing. I thought I would have to split the inner part of the fuse box because it appeared that the copper wire turned down into the inside of it. It doesn't do that. There is a hole for the tip of the wire to sit into but thats as far as either side of the wire goes. It's a piece of cake Its starting to get dark here in california and Im going to go melt my new nitto NTO5's If you do not have a set of these on your C6 ZO6 you are a fool. they eliminated any wheel hop and you can actually stand on the gas in first and second. It's a night and day difference from the Goodyears as long as you don't mind calling a tow truck if you get a flat

Originally Posted by SenseofTouch

Hi everyone!

I have had a low beam problem on my car since I bought it. Dealer tried to fix it before shipping it to me (by replacing a relay) and that did of course not work. After much back and forth arguing who's paying for what I decided to fix it myself.

First, a huuuuuge thank you to racerxr (Tom) here on the forum. Thanks for locating the problem and figuring out how to fix it as well as providing excellent descriptions and pictures via email! The wire was broken in EXACTLY the spot that you pointed out!

Yesterday me and my awesome girlfriend set out to fix the fuse box! We ended up following Tom's instructions for the most part with a few modifications. I have written a short step-by-step guide for how we fixed the problem. This is to further clarify how this CAN be done (this is by NO means the perfect solution) to those who are still wondering to fix it yourself or not. It was a pretty straight forward job, and absolutely well worth 1000 $

Take the fuse box out of the car. Very simple:
1. Disconnect the battery and the power cable that connects to the fuse box
2. Press the plastic clips that attaches the main part of the fuse box and pop it out
3. Unscrew the four metal bolts and knock on them so that each of the four blocks fall out
4. You're DONE

Disassemble the fuse box
1. Pull out all fuses and relays
2. Use a needle nose plier and un-swedge the metal sleeves that hold the two layers together.



3. When un-swedged enoug, knock the bolts through the box so that it can be disassembled. I messed up the bolts so badly (bad needle nose pliers) during the un-swedging that I decided to cut the metal sleeves surrounding the bolts (see picture) so that they don't interfere. The sleeves are not needed as their only purpose is to keep you from opening the fusebox. When the box is in the car, it is held in place by the four bolts and the four block modules.


Replacing the broken wire
1. Get some 20 gauge copper wire. I bought some at Homedepot for 7 $


2. Find the broken broken wire and remove it. When you manage to open the fusebox, the broken wire is on the other side.


Very bad conductivity.


3. Replace the wire. As Tom suggested, I added a backup wire on the other side as well. So in case the wire breaks again there is a backup on the other side. I also removed some of the plastic guiding with a razor so that the copper wire can have nicer bends.


Backup wire on the back side


Put everything back together and drive after dark!
When putting the fusebox back together, simply align the four block modules and place the box on top of them (without the bolts in place). Then see through the bolt holes so that you make sure that they are sentered. Enter the bolts and screw in place each of the modules till each bolt is tightened. Check visually afterwards if all the blocks are in place.



edit: Link to the picasa album: https://picasaweb.google.com/1062290...FixCorvetteC6#

Thanks Tom!

Originally Posted by torquetube

I want to thank racerxr for this contribution. Based on his post, I went out to my parts bin and re-examined my old fusebox.

When mine failed a year ago, I took the thing apart like he did, un-swaged the four metal sleeves that hold the thing together, and noted that inside was a multi-layer punchdown block with copper wires routed around a plastic grid.

Unfortunately, the wire to the low-beam relay was not on the bottom layer, and it appeared that a lot of disassembly would be required to reach the upper layer(s), so I called it a day.

I shouldn't have. As racerxr points out - once the four sleeves are out, the backplane is held against the top half of the fusebox case by the fuses and relays themselves.

I just now unplugged everything, and sure enough, the entire backplane fell out the bottom, revealing the top layer and the broken wire of circuit 1970 (low-beam relay).

With the top layer visible, it became apparent why circuit 1970 fails all the time but the other circuits don't. It has the longest straight section of any wire in the box, with a jog in the middle probably intended for strain relief. It appears what happens is that as the fusebox heats up, the plastic grid expands faster than the copper wires do. This puts the long wire in tension, stretching the jog section tightly around the plastic guides, where eventually it fractures.

This looks to be a fairly straightforward repair. I agree that matching the wire gauge is essential, and that removing material from the guide corners would help prevent it happening again.