I happened upon a friend's car that was having electrical problems, and I can't resist an opportunity to solder some wires.
This troubleshooting guide was written about a 2005 Chevrolet Aveo. The Chevy Aveo is also the Pontiac Wave, Suzuki Swift and Daewoo Kalos. This problem may also affect 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2008 models.
SYMPTOMS
- Speedometer/Instrument panel lights not working
- Interior lights not working
- Tail lights or brake lights not working
CAUSE
- S101 Splicer pack overheats and burns wiring under the hood
HOW TO CHECK
- Open the hood and remove the fuse box cover
- Look into the fuse box at the splicer (use diagram at right, click for full size)
- Decide whether or not to take the fuse box apart, remove splicer and re-connect wires
There are no other steps. It is not possible to pull the wiring out and inspect the wires for signs of burning without removing and separating the whole fuse box. The top of the S101 may be burnt and discolored, and this would be 100% confirmation that you should follow the steps provided below.
HOW TO TAKE IT APART
- Disconnect the battery (negative first), wrap the wire ends in rags, and cover the top of the battery terminals with a rag so none of your tools become conductors of its charge
- Remove the engine compartment fuse box cover and the 10mm nut on the fusebox ground wire in the bottom right hand corner
- Remove the two 10mm bolts that hold the fuse box in place in the engine bay
- Remove white and grey harness connector on the left side of the fuse box
- Break the splicer free from its perch in the fuse box (don't be shy, we're going to remove it completely)
- Separate the upper and lower halves of the fuse box while minding the electrical tape on the right side
- Remove the bottom of the fuse box and set it aside
- Twist the fuse box upside down so you can pull the splicer out from underneath and assess the situation
HOW TO FIX IT
The concept here is to remove the splicer and join the wires together with a soldering iron instead. The splicer exists to connect the 14 wires in 3 groups. Unfortunately, its design is prone to failure. The following diagram shows which wires to solder together using three colors. Click for full size.
- Cut 7 wires off the row of the splicer that contains
- Green with yellow stripe
- Brown
- Green
- Brown
- Green with yellow stripe
- Brown
- Green with yellow stripe
- Solder all 7 of these wires together
- Cut 4 wires off the other side
- Purple with white stripe
- Brown with white stripe
- Brown with white stripe
- Brown with white stripe
- Solder all 4 of these wires together
- Cut the last 3 wires from the splicer
- Purple
- Purple
- Purple with white stripe
- Solder all 3 of these wires together
- Cover everything in electrical tape
- Put your car back together while connecting your battery last (positive first)
OPTIONAL STEPS
- Destroy the splicer
- Start car
- Use lights
Man I have been looking for something like this!! I do have a question though. My wires look pretty burned up. Will they be long enough after I take them out of the fuse box? Is there another option to solder? Some kind of wiring connector?
Thanks for all your effort!!
There isn't a whole lot of extra wire to work with. The car I worked on had two wires burnt so badly they broke off before I had a chance to cut them. Scraping the burnt wire casing off with wire strippers was a chore. You could extend the wires coming out of the harness side by peeling back the loom, but there's not a whole lot you can do on the fuse box side. There is enough slack to make a mend, but not a whole lot of breathing room. I am sure you could make the wires longer if you had some extra wire laying around.
Like I wrote above, there's really no way to check it out and see what is what. You have to take it all apart completely to see anything, so you might as well go in prepared to do whatever it takes.
I followed the instructions and got my dash lights working and all my marker and turn signals functioning. My brake lights are still out. Any idea which wires actually control those? My guess is it is the 7 wire bundle that was a lot to get soldered. I have not done it for a while and mine is kind of ugly. If you know for sure I would appreciate it so I only mess with what I have to next time.
Thanks a load for all your help thust far!
For anyone else trying this, as a decent shade tree mechanic it took me about 2 hours. Mostly working with the small ends of wires and relearning to solder. That and taking a few breaks to settle when my American hands were tryinig to work in the small area left to do this and I was getting frustrated. Learned long ago better to get a snack then get pissed and make a mistake!
Who da man? You da man. Who Da Man?! You Da Man! WHO DA MAN!?!?!? YOU DA MAN!!!!!
Having now taken apart my under hood fuse box twice and getting a little help from an electrician friend, I have brake lights again for the whopping out of pocket expense of $6.50! Of which I could have avoided all of it. I did go buy a soldering iron and solder both on sale at the Harbor Freight but wound up not needing them. I tried and did a miserable job soldering the wires. My alterations to Corey's instructions are as follows. Get some wire connectors or Butt connectors and a wire stripper/crimper if you do not have one. Follow all the above instructions just replace connectors where it has solder. When you do this the wires coming from the black bundle on the driver's side wheel well are very short, have patience in stripping the insulation. The wires connected to the fuse box, if you find their source and pull them out straignt give you 3-8 inches to work with. Pull them away and strip them back. It is much less stressful. Bundle the wires coming in from the wheel well together and crimp them into the connector first. Then bundle the wires coming from the fuse box and crimp them into the other end. If you have the skill, solder is probably better. If you are like me and grew up soldering circuit boards, short wire is a whole different ball game.
As a side note, after doing all this I still did not have brake lights. I did note that my brake light switch was clicking. I was thinking it was broken, my electrician buddy checked the lines and found that the switch shaft was sticking. He sprayed a little "Liquid Wrench" in there and now they work fine. If in a couple of weeks they go out again, I will replace the switch.
Corey, thanks for everything. I have been without brake lights for way too long now. I found myself blinking them just because I could at stoplights!!
I'm glad it worked out, man! Thanks for following up after finishing the job. I was wondering what happened.
Can you tell me how you removed the harness connector without breaking it? I tried and could not get it out? Thanks
Bren:
The white and grey connector on the left side? Try patience! That disconnection took me 5 or 10 minutes alone. I may have used hemostats to poke and pry on one side.
The harness on the left side (not the splicer) is actually a press to release catch. Try fanagling it with pressing on the attachment point. I checked it out after because it was a buggaboo to get off.
I'm glad I found this post because I have the same exact problem. I'm going to try to fix it on my own this coming week. I'm not a mechanic so hopefully everything goes well. Quick question: if I were to use wire connectors instead of soldering the wires, would they just stick out where the old splicer use to be?
Thanks for you help guys!
P James:
You will likely still end up with a gap where the splicer used to be, and the wire connections will lay inside the fuse box near its bottom. You will be able to look into that hole and see them.
Awesome, thanks a lot Corey!
Backing up Corey for P James. My connectors just lay under where the splicer was.
Phew!!! Yep that means that I just finished the job of connecting those wires together. Took me about 1.5hrs so not bad at all. There is just 1 mistake... "Put your car back together while connecting your battery last (negative first)". Well maybe you can do it that way but I looked it up and they all say hook the positive up first which is what I did ...and it does work :) I didn't have a solder gun so just used marrets and electrical tape to connect the wires. I have been a good 5 or more months without park lights on 1 side and no dash lights so was glad to find this especially the diagram without which I would have been lost! Thanks so much for everything I only spent $$$ on marrets as I had everything else so cheerio to that!
Thanks again for this and just wanted to let you know how useful this was.
Andrew
Glad I could help, Andrew. Today I learned "marrets" is another word for wire nuts.
Brake switch follow up. My brake lights went out again. The repair is holding fine but the switch keeps sticking. I will be replacing it this weekend. So if you do all this and still no brake lights, check your switch.
Wow What a GREAT Help this was. I have had crazy electrical problems with my 2006 aveo lt hatchback for 2 months. did this fix and all lights are back working. I still have to replace (2nd alternator in 3 weeks) as it seems (possibly) that they were killed while splicer was burning up(wires 11-20 on my car are for ignition). Also there was a couple of wires I DIDN'T have but that is particular to my version of car. I will post details of my differences ASAP. Corey I have some Pictures and more details specific to my model. Email me and I will get them to you if you want. Also I could explain a few things I learned from a chevy dealer that you will want to post as all aveo wiring seem to specific to model ls lt sedan or hatchback.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I had this exact problem with a 2006 Aveo. Inspecting the fuse box showed that the splicer was severely charred and burned. Your guide was the first Web site I found that described how to fix the probem without replacing the fusebox and all of its wires. So thanks!
Got the brake switch changed out yesterday. $9 at the local shop. No tools required, about a 5 min job once I figured out how to contort myself in there where I could both see and use my hands!
THANKS! these are great cars but have their issues. I read a few forums and ended up here. 05 had no dash or right side running lights. Sure enough a burned splicer. Took me less than 30 minutes after reading your instructions, a little solder and good tape. On the road!
COREY!!!! AWESOME - AWESOME - AWESOME!!! As an Electronics Tech (not in automotive though), I was BANGING MY HEAD trying to figure this out!!! Your directions were clear and detail-oriented. I completed it and the wife was VERY HAPPY, which makes ME VERY HAPPY!!! :O
Keep up the amazing work!!!
Been pulled over four times this week alone for the trail light being out, just got done with the process and everything works amazing again. Thank you so much, two hundred dollar fine averted, thank you so much!
Great news, but how did you avoid the fine four times?
Thanks for this. I just fixed this on my 2005. Worked great. THANKS!
Great write up. Friend came over because his girlfriends dash lights weren't working and this solved it. Upon inspecting the connector was indeed burned up. Great work.
Oh yeah.....he'll with solder! Butt connectors or bust for me, baby!
Corey thanks; you were a GOD sent for us.
YES, ladies you can do this too!
I was constantly trying to make it home before dark that only worked in the summer months…Pulled over 2 times. Now it’s FIXED!
Now my radio shorts out when I turn my car on, then goes off. Any suggestions?
P.S. Dont get the Harness confused with the Splicer.
No problem. What do you mean by, "radio shorts out then goes off?" Usually, a circuit that is shorted will blow a fuse and not work at all.
Brenda the OEM radios in these cars are junk. Pop the radio out.....orange wire should have 12V at all times. Yellow wire should read 12v when the key is on. If this is the case, you have a bad radio. Time to replace.
Thanks
Well now it doesnt come on at all...
So now I'll just have it replaced.