Hey guys I decided to do a HUD install on my 2013 automatic 1LT this morning. I got the hud all installed physically with the cut the tubing method. Then I installed the wiring harness using Autocraft wire taps from Autozone. I wanted to try the system out prior to buttoning everything up so I hooked up the hud control panel, dash, and the starter switch. When I started the car the car had the following issues:

service abs
vehicle speed unsure

wont shift out of park
no oil pressure
no water temp
no gas
ac questionable
lights work
dash lites up
hud doesnt lite up
radio blinked out
radio says locked and now the car is locked and won't unlock

I had to get out of the car the hard way.

Discouraged I began disconnecting some of the plugs and then decided to disconnect negative battery cable and call it a day.


Any ideas?

My thinking is that I have a bad ground connection and some of the sensor inputs are also no good. Why did the car lose oil pressure and water temp though? Could that be due to a bad ground in the dash harness?

Thanks.

Will work on it tomorrow and will have to arrange for alternate transport. I might go pick up a low mileage lease on a Cadillac ATS as a second car to hold me over during these mods.

 

Whats the voltage on your battery? If you had anything on (lights, ignition) while you were doing the install you may have run down the battery.

 

I will check the voltage in the morning. I have a charger. Now the car did have enough juice to start up and acted strangely and complained about all sorts of things while running.

 

you tapped into the wrong wires?

 

These symptoms imply a low battery.

 

I would get in touch with either Steve Doten or Andrew both are forum vendors and HUD installers with hundred of installs between them. I'm sure one of them has run into this issue before and will be able to help you out. Good luck! I do agree its the above statements however. I would grab another battery and install it. Before doing anything further. These cars can do some strange things when the battery is low on power.

 

wow, I'd say you probably tapped the wrong wires on the harness. Feel free to give me a call and we can walk through what you did.

 

No ranting, no raving just the facts, and some questions. Some people posts stuff like this and place blame on Chevy, or vendors or etc. Classy post man, I hope you fix her up!

 

Thanks so much Andrew. Are you the man whose name is on the card that came with the harness?

I grabbed a Mustang convertible rental car because I have school and work to attend to so I never did go back and work on it.

I don't think I tapped the wrong wire but you never know. I checked each wire a few times to ensure that I was tapping into the right thing. The wires are labeled with harness plug color, wire color, and wire number. I ensured that these were all correct before and after tapping them.

I did have trouble with one wire where I tapped into the new wire but the old one was hanging off to the side so I pulled the tap back a bit, reinserted the wire and recrimped. I think that may have been a mistake. Lets hope.

 

Thanks Vette Lag. I assume that I am to blame for most problems like this. I didn't bother to check continuity on the wires after performing the taps either. I think fatigue set in after an extremely long time wrestling with cutting the duct.

Word to the wise. When you cut the duct please don't cut too far over to the right. Another post mentioned this but I did it anyway.

 

Yes sir, that is me the guy on the card lol. What probably happened was on the black harness the brown wire is hard to tell. You have my number if you have any issues

 

I have Friday off and will be getting back into this.
I will start by checking all wiring connections and will most likely solder the wires instead of using taps. At least for the power and ground.

BTW, I used the color and position number information on the wiring harness tags so I understand that brown looks more like dark gray but with the position number how could I go wrong?

 

Call me when you go to do it and I'd highly recommend not soldering the connections.

 

Ok Andrew I will follow your guidance, however if I do not solder then what do I do?
I think my options are:
1. quick splices from Autozone (put two wires in a thingy, squeeze down on a metal tab with pliers, hope the splice works)
2. peel and tape
3. peel, solder, and tape
4. peel and heat shrink? I have heat shrinked before but its required me to have access to the full length of the wire which implies cutting.

Also for the peel and tape, is there a way I should expose the factory wiring without actually cutting it? I'd like to avoid cutting the wires if possible. I am also concerned about the longevity of tape.

 

I like heat shrink for my boat due to waterproofing but big problem with soldering is movement/vibrations so I would not go that route

I think regular automotive connections would be fine but nothing wrong with heat shrink at all to me

 

Hope it's an easy fix.

 

when you put the duct back together, I would pick up some foil tape (use to seal AC ducts etc) I wrapped mine with it and sealed it up 100%, plus that tape adhesive is pretty strong, it won't be coming unstuck.

 

Forget the solder. Those are small gauge stranded wires. Soldering them together will make them very stiff at the solder point and subject to breaking under vibration or bending.

If you don't believe me try it on some small wires you may have laying around. After soldering bend the joint a few times and you find it falls apart.

Bill

 

1. Use the red fold over connectors.
2. I don't generally tape or heat shrink due to it pulling on the wires.
3. no
4. no.