Pontiac Repair: Intermittent enviromental controls, dash lights and daylight running lights., digital volt meter, rubber gromet

Question
Hi Todd
I have a 2002 Pontiac Grand Prix GT 3.8L. It has a intermittent problem where the environmental controls (all of them, AC, Heat, Defrost, fan control), dash lights and daylight running lights don't work. They either all work or they don't at the same time. The only way to get them to work is to put the fan speed on high and after about 30 seconds or so they all start to work, but if you turn the fan speed down, everything stops working again. They can be working, then I turn off the car and restart it and they wont be working. Have any ideals? Thanks

Answer
Hi Robert:

sounds lime you have a power feed issue here. Either high resistance in the ignition switch contacts or high resistance in the power feed from the underhood fuse block to the ignition switch. is there anyt other issues whenthis happens like the PRNDLL lights on the speedo not light up? Power windows not working etc.???  If so then that would further indicate that there is an issue with a power feed. you can verify this with a digital volt meter when it acts up you can check the voltage on the fuses in the dash board fuse panel if the batter voltage is lower then that at the battery it would indicate a high resistance in the power feeds then you need to check the feeds going into the ignition switch I belive that has 2 constant power feeds (red) going into the switch If you have battery volatge at those but not at the fuses the switch is bad. If you have less then battery voltage at the swicth the power feeds(S) are bad and usually they have a problem where the wires pass though the fire wall ther is a rubber gromet that the wires pass thoughg and that gets filled with water and that causes the wires to corrode = high resistance. good luck :-)