92 Cadillac Deville all electrical components fried - Advice?

[rmbb]

I recentlybought a 1992 Cadillac Sedan de Ville. I’ve had electrical issues with it aswell as running issues.
Four fuseskept blowing. When I pulled out the aftermarket radio harness out of the radioand took the aftermarket harness out of the original radio harness, three ofthe four blowing fuses stopped blowing. The one that kept blowing was the onefor the ABS.

And the enginehas had poor idle and has been driving ok on some days and really bad on otherdays. It’s been as if it has been prevented from getting power. One has to be reallygentle on the gas pedal, especially on the highway where it can barely get upto 75 mph.

So thedigital gauge cluster has been dead. I took it out and a resistor had burntinside it. Today I also took out the Airbag module and a resistor has alsoburned in that one. Then I took out the Body Control Module and a resistor hasalso burnt in that one. I suspect the Power Control Module has also burnt.

Also thebattery has recently been replaced; they’ve done some rewiring I gather sincethe poles on the Euro batteries look different than the old US ones do. Also I get a little jolt from staticelectricity every time I exit the car and touch on of the doors. This has neverhappened to me as much as it does with this car.

I haveordered for a new BCM, a new gauge cluster and a new PCM.

What couldhave caused this and that that caused it, is it still present in the vehicle?Is that possible? What should I suspectand what should I do?

 

[AutoEletricsIRE]

Sounds like an 1)overload in the system or a 2)short like one of the earth wires is live causing a burning affect

Simple checks to do is make sure that all earth wires comming from the negative pole of the battery are all connected to the body of the car and not the plus of the battery

2)Take off alternator and get it checked out by a mechanic or a auto eletrician who repairs them.

3)Check with a multimeter that voltage is not execeeding wat ever voltage is proper spec for the car as it is an american car im not sure of the correct voltage which it is normally 14 volts with engine running any thing more than 16 volts or more could cause damage.

I recentlybought a 1992 Cadillac Sedan de Ville. I’ve had electrical issues with it aswell as running issues.
Four fuseskept blowing. When I pulled out the aftermarket radio harness out of the radioand took the aftermarket harness out of the original radio harness, three ofthe four blowing fuses stopped blowing. The one that kept blowing was the onefor the ABS.

And the enginehas had poor idle and has been driving ok on some days and really bad on otherdays. It’s been as if it has been prevented from getting power. One has to be reallygentle on the gas pedal, especially on the highway where it can barely get upto 75 mph.

So thedigital gauge cluster has been dead. I took it out and a resistor had burntinside it. Today I also took out the Airbag module and a resistor has alsoburned in that one. Then I took out the Body Control Module and a resistor hasalso burnt in that one. I suspect the Power Control Module has also burnt.

Also thebattery has recently been replaced; they’ve done some rewiring I gather sincethe poles on the Euro batteries look different than the old US ones do. Also I get a little jolt from staticelectricity every time I exit the car and touch on of the doors. This has neverhappened to me as much as it does with this car.

I haveordered for a new BCM, a new gauge cluster and a new PCM.

What couldhave caused this and that that caused it, is it still present in the vehicle?Is that possible? What should I suspectand what should I do?

 

[Engineer54]

The best advice anyone can give you, is to trade this pup in for another car, preferably in your case a Volvo, but definitely not another old Yank model!!

 

[Earthstore]

I was going to say scrap it, but thought it too rude...
What do you value the car at?

 

[plugsandsparks]

With all that going on I would be immediately looking at what voltage is being produced by the alternator to make sure its not over producing volts.

 

[rmbb]

One thing that I keep thinking about is that every time I exit the car I get a little jolt from static electricity when I touch one of the doors. I wonder, without having any knowledge of electrics, if that could have anything to do with the problem that I am having. I did check the all the wires coming from the battery. Two of earth wires are from the negative, one is attached to the body and the other one seems to go into the ignition coil but of that Im not certain, it was difficult to tell. I'm on vacation so I don't have all my tools with me.

I bought this car for the equivalent of $1300. It has 120 000 miles on it but in very nice condition otherwise. Paint job looks great and interior has no rips or tears. The car is originally from Palm Springs, California. It runs really nice on days when it runs well.

I keep wondering if this whole thing may have happened because of some mistake that was made during the conversion from US battery cables to Euro battery cables or if this whole thing came about with the installation of the aftermarket radio. The funny thing was that fuses kept blowing until I pulled the aftermarket radio wire harness from the original radio harness. I wonder if there was somehow a short in that harness and that that problem now is eliminated. I certainly hope so.

Seems that resistors all through the car has burnt. I opened up the PCM the other day and there was slightly burned resistor in that one too.

PS I checked the alternator yesterday and it produces 14.6 volts steadily regardless of engine speed.

PS I agree that US cars don't have the best track record. I know this from my own experience. But I really like how they drive. I've had Euro cars too and to me they're just not as fun to drive. But sure, I would be less likely to have problems like these in a 92 Mercedes or 92 Toyota.

 

[rmbb]

I was going to say scrap it, but thought it too rude...
What do you value the car at?

I think it's worth around $3000. If you ask people who own these cars in Sweden they would say $9000 but they're not sensible.

 

[AutoEletricsIRE]

All depends on how good the copper is in the cables from the battery bad cables will cause a lot of heat just like bad jump leads.

The more you have connected to the Battery the more heat will be created if the cables are bad although i have never come across this before worth a try.

 

[grantr37]

Hello, that's a set of Varistors that have burned out, due to over current, they can be replaced for about 3 pounds each (about 5 US Dollars each) and found on the internet...there may be a few other components that need replaced too, shouldn't cost you any more than about 30 US Dollars to buy the parts...

 

[grantr37]

put some top-down photos of the circuit boards on here please, I'll post you some components in the mail if I have any spare ones