Urkked...

[strc09]

Went to a show yesterday with my club. I didn't register the car because there was only one class that F-Bodies could compete in, plus I didn't feel like staying around with the stupid stuff that happens at ricer events. I did however have a good time with my friends in the club.

Now...why am I urkked?

After two years of owning the car I finally replaced my hood struts. I waited because I knew I was putting a new hood on and wanted to see if the original shocks were strong enough to hold a lighter fiberglass hood. Yeah, not so much. So, I get those replaced and then go to open my rear hatch. For some reason or another the motor pushed the catch up through the plastic molding and wouldn't stop. WTF?!

It finally stops making noise so I finish setting my car up then borrow some tools from my buddy. Take the molding off and start giving the motor a once over. That's when I find it...the plastic housing peice snapped not allowing the motor screw to engage the wheel screw that moves the latch assembly up and down. Again, WTF?!!

I could understand the plastic part breaking if I slammed the hatch down everytime I close it. Secondly, I hardly ever get back there unless I'm going to a car show and have to carry my supplies/display stuff. Lastly, I just replaced this in 2006 and my car spent most of 2007 down. So, between all of that, how in the hell does the motor do this when it hardly gets used? I could understand if I was using the hatch on a regular basis, but I haven't and when I do I'm gentle with it so I don't break it.

Has anyone else had this happen? I really hate having to spend money on stuff that I've already replaced with new "good" parts for them to turn around and go bad with hardly any use. Is there a way to reinforce this plastic part once I get a new one? For now, it's been ghetto fixed with zipties because if I didn't do that, it woudl bounce (and hard) every time I hit a bump and I'm not ready to replace an entire rear hatch yet. :rolleyes:

PartII -

So, I finally got tired of stupid crap and left to head home and do some other work on the car that I've been putting off for a nice day. When I picked my car up in Charlotte one of my foglights went out. No big deal...replace the bulb and be done with it. I don't need them to drive with, I just like having them because I think it's a cool look when it not quite dark enough for headlights. :D

A couple of weeks after the cars been home we get hit with this massive rain storm. I think it rained for two or three days solid. It was wild. Since Vader isn't my DD anymore the car didn't move the entire time it rained. On the second day of the storm I was walking past the front door to another part of the house. My wife was gone so I had a clear shot of my car sitting across the street. I notice the fog lights are on. Mind you I hadn't been out to the car yet that day for any reason. WTF!?

I go out to the car and the fog light switch is illuminated, but the headlight switch isn't on. Puzzled?? I'm thinking my car is going to go Christine on me or something. I get in the car and turn the switch off. It light goes off, I get out and check, the fog lights are out. I go to lock the car back up and as soon as I get back to the door...the fog light switch was again illuminated. Remember, I just turned it off so I go check the fog lights...yup...you guessed it. The fog lights were still on. This goes on for about 10-minutes trying different combinations to get the lights to stay off.

So I go to the shed and grab my tools so I can start dismantling my dash. And yes...it's still raining out. I pull that part of the dash apart where teh switch is and unplug it. Thinking I got them to shut off finally I go out and they're still on!! WTF?!?!?! :shrug2: So I crawl under teh front of the car and unplug them. Then to be safe, I disconnect the battery and they stay out.

I ordered a new switch for it a couple of months ago and bought some new bulbs yesterday. Yeah, replacing the bulbs in a huge PITA. You have to pull the entire assembly out and then disassemble it to replace the bulb, put it back together, and then bolt it back into the car before you plug it back in. Okay, so not really that hard...just more of a nuisance to get to the bulb when there are probably easier ways to have engineered it.

Anyway, I replace the switch in the car before I plugged the lights back up. Plugged the switch in and then plugged the lights back up. They weren't on. This is a good thing. I go turn my parking lights on and then hit the switch. Nothing happens. My parking lights all work, but the fog lights are MIA. I pulled the new switch out and replaced it with the old one. The same result. I doubled checked the connection of the lights and they were good and tight. I messed with it for about and hour trying several combinations tried to check the routing of the wires and lost the harness after it merged with the front parking lights.

I'm at a loss. I really wish I new what the deal was. Any help would be appreciated and I'm sorry for such a long post. I'm just upset that yesterday two things decided to break on my car and I don't know why they broke and why they don't work. On the plus side...I can still drive my car so that at least is a good thing and I'll take that any day of the week. These other things are just annoying.

If you've read this far...I salute you and appreciate any help/insight you can give. Thanks. :D

[FearThisGTA]

Wish I could be of more help but I pretty much suck at electrical stuff. :o But, IMO, if I had to guess I would say its either in a relay or you have a wire grounding out. hth

[Arrow]

sounds relay related to me too.

I also had the same thing happen to my first T/A with the hatch motor.

[gtayumiko]

I had to read over your post a few times because it was really complicated to me. Because you mentioned fiberglass hood and then went to explain the hatchback. I did not notice when you went from one to the other, so I could not understand for a while.

O.K about the first problem. You probably now realize that most of the moving parts of the hatchback motor assembly are plastic. So they break easily. Even if you do not open and close it all of the time, when your driving and you hit bumps and stuff, there is still stress put on the plastic parts even though they are not moving. Add that heat from sun and cold from winter will also weaken these plastic parts. The same thing happened to my GTA but in 1992. The motor continued to run, because there is a plastic toggle that sticks out of the on/off switch of the truck assembly. When that toggle breaks, the motor does not know when to stop running. The only way to stop the motor from running is to disconnect the power wire to the assembly motor. Sorry but that is just the way GM makes their vehicles.

With your second problem, well, I have not had anything at all like that happen to my GTA. Good thing because I know absolutely nothing about electricity except you cannot tell if it is there by just looking at wires. That is what I do not like about electricity. Anyways, I am betting that what the problem is, water ran into your electrical system some how because of all the rain you mentioned. You should really take a flashlight or something and look under the dash and inside where the fuses are located and check to see if water is in there. I am betting that water may have run inside of your dash where all the wires and fuses are. Because you got the new fiberglass hood, it may not be exact as the factory one and so water may be going under the hood somehow. Especially there is one rubber weather strip that runs from each side of the car and it is at the underside of the factory hood near the windshield. This weather strip when the hood is closed, is squeezed between the under side of the rear part of the hood and where the lower part of the windshield is mounted. I guess it is called something like the "firewall." If you do not have that weather strip in place, perhaps the rain water ran over the side of the rear of the hood, down onto the "firewall" and then down where it may then trickle into the car behind the dash where all of the electrical wires pass through the "firewall."

So get a flashlight or something and perhaps remove the small panel where the fuses are and look up in there and see if you can notice any water. Also if there was enough water going in, you may be able to see water running down near where the excellerator and brake peddles are.

Yumiko

[strc09]

Thansk for the info on the hatch motor. I was hoping that there would be a way to reinforce it somehow eventhough it's plastic. I'd just hate to have to replace this each year because it decides to break. :(

As for the electrical problem...I'm sure the rain had something to do with it. As far as water leaking inside my car, doesn't happen. My car was bone dry when I got in it that day. The only water that got inside was from when I opened the door and I closed it as soon as I got in the car. The hood fits fine on the car and the weather stripping that you're refering to is there. So again, not sure where the water cuold have leaked in from. The engine compartment was dry as well until I opened the hood. :( Besides, it's been over two months since then...you'd think that it would have dried out by now with all of the warm weather we've had this winter. So, I could see water as being a temporary issue, but not over two months later when it hasn't been very wet for as long of a duration. Very confusing...this is why I hate electrical work also...

If it could be a relay, where would that relay be? As for shorts in a ground...I don't even know where to begin. From what I gathered yesterday when I looked under the hood the fog light wires run into the plug at the driver/passenger side marker light plugs. From there, the plug runs onto someplace else. From that point I lost where the wire bundles went behind the fender.

[FearThisGTA]

Hey on that rear hatch motor you can get the repair kit cheap from TDS. hth

[strc09]

That's where I got the repair kit originally, Cliff. :(

[Klortho]

The one in my GTA did this the other day on me, motor just kept running and running until I finally pulled the fuse. Lon is supposed to have a reinforced casing now iirc so may want to check that out.

[Louvers]

I hear you Patrick .... these cars are a love/hate relationship

My wife actually asked why our car expenses had gone down so much over the past year and I told her ....

it's because I haven't been driving the GTA very much :(

[Klortho]

Actually, I got thinking about the fog light problem on my way to work and you may want to check the relay for the lights, if it's an original the contacts may be sticking causing the lights to stay on. The relay (if it's in the same spot as my '87) is on the driver side frame rail, one big purple wire going to it.

[strc09]

I'll give that a look Klortho. Would they sell that at the parts store? Also, that could be why I don't get anything now right? I'll go and check out TDS again and shoot Lon and PM to see what he's got. It's just so aggrivating since it was replaced already in such a short amount of time. As always...thanks for the info fellas.

[Klortho]

Here's a link to the reinforced motor housing

http://www.top-downsolutions.com/product_info.php?cPath=22&products_id=54

and any parts store should have the fog light relay, just a standard 4 pole relay.

[strc09]

Can you please post up a picture of where it is and what it looks like, please? I would greatly appreciate it. :) Thanks.

[MunsonGTA]

this is what it looks like. i believe it's near the horns by the drivers side fender.

http://www.partsamerica.com/product_images/img/nie/rl32931-1.jpg

[strc09]

I'll look for it when I get home this afternoon. Thanks Munson.

[strc09]

I looked for something that looked like that Munson and didn't see it. :( If someone could take a photo of where it is that would help greatly. I looked around the horns and moved the battery around not finding anything that looked like that. Thanks. :D

[gtayumiko]

There are also two of those on the opposite side of the engine compartment, you need to remove the air intake near the MAF in order to get to them. Also consider that my GTA is 1987 so yours may be different, I do not know. But I also have one of those fuses near my battery also. Unsure why your GTA would not. Maybe again it is different years. Yumiko

[Klortho]

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e274/carnage3/GTA/GTA2.jpg

Look in front of the wheel well on the driver side, you'll see a black relay mounted on the fender rail, this is the one for the fog lights.

[strc09]

Okay...that picture isn't helping me. :( I think I see what you're talking about, but I'm not sure. That's the area I looked in today. I might have over looked it, but I really don't remember seeing it.

[1988TAGTA]

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e274/carnage3/GTA/GTA2.jpg

Look in front of the wheel well on the driver side, you'll see a black relay mounted on the fender rail, this is the one for the fog lights.
mmmm you parting that out, i see a few peices in the photo i need

[88GTAEd]

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f333/73pontiac/IMG_2758.jpg
i had to replace mine too.

[Klortho]

nope, that's my GTA........

[88GTAEd]

nope, that's my GTA........ wha?

[Klortho]

wha?

Sorry, that was a reply to 1988TAGTA

[88GTAEd]

Sorry, that was a reply to 1988TAGTA
lol ok