Hello everybody I'm having electrical issues with my car. My cluster would malfunction, all the light on the dashboard would light up and ac would not blow cold air. Sometime everything works fine then all the above function would stop simultaneously. Clearly an electrical problem the car always starts right up so I do not believe it is a battery or alternator issue. I did inspect the battery and noticed a loose ground wire so i tightened it. I'm attaching the image of my batteries ground wire I tightened. I resolved the problem but only temporary. Are there any other ground wires or problems you could think of that would cause these problems?

Thank you in advance,

Alex,

 

Dashboard lighting up like a Christmas tree is a classic symptom of a failing Body Control Module.
Never really heard of this being intermittent, though.

Any issue that results in the car's electronic modules not receiving sufficient current can conceivably lead to all kinds of problems.

That looks like an awfully small ground wire to be coming directly off the battery. I'm thinking it is coming off of some module that is connected to the negative lead that goes to the battery. Need to know what that module is. Please upload a picture in your reply.

I am also willing to guess that when you tightened that loose ground, you had first disconnected the battery. This is more likely what helped in the situation, as the BCM gets reset along with the rest of the electronic modules.

Is your service engine soon light on? If so, what codes have you pulled? Do you have a scanner that is capable of reading body control module codes, B codes? Body control module codes will not light the SES.

Unfortunately, the readers used at AutoZone and similar will also not read the body control module codes, usually only the emission related codes, the P codes I believe. Worth a try to have them read it anyway. Especially when the vehicle is acting up as you may not be able to read them otherwise. The other solution to this catch 22 is to borrow a very capable scanner from a buddy.

Does the car keep running normally when the dash lights up like a Christmas tree? Do you have any issues with the security system stopping you from starting the car? What does the mileage read when the dash lights up like a Christmas tree?

Answers to these questions should provide a good starting place for a more solid diagnosis. Please include all symptoms of misbehavior in your response. Things that seem very minor and completely unrelated may in fact be related and key to the diagnosis.

 

That is a main body ground, same as my car. The big part of the ground cable is bolted to the engine for starter load. There are many ground splices on the newer cars. My front body harness grounds to that same stud, fans and lights. I would start by removing that nut and cleaning all of that rusty looking cable ends and putting it back together. My car has at least three grounding locations on the drivers side inner fender and many more inside the car.

 

Andy is vastly more experienced in these matters.

Follow his lead on this

 

That picture sure looks like an L200 not an S series engine. Are you sure what you have? I see a power steering pump on the end of the cylinder head.

 

Based on battery location, doesn't look much like any S car dohc or sohc I have ever seen unless they did some renovations for the third generation which I highly doubt.

Washer and coolant reservoirs are on the complete other side of the engine bay. So I must second Andy's question.

 

In 2000, L series was LS LS1 LS2 (V6)
in 2001 forward, equivalent renaming for sedans was L100 L200, L300 (v6)


2002 L200 stock picture

Indeed this is not an SL2.
Was originally posted in tech section.
I moved to s sedans. (Shame on me)
Now moved to L sedans

 

**Correction yes this is a L200 it's my wives car me and my mechanic friend are looking for ways to fix this hopefully simple problem. My apologies for any confusion I may have caused.

Does the car keep running normally when the dash lights up like a Christmas tree?

Yes runs perfectly fine.

Do you have any issues with the security system stopping you from starting the car?

The security, check engine, abs lights all come on and no the system does not prevent me from starting the car.

What does the mileage read when the dash lights up like a Christmas tree?

The mileage reads the same does not change out of the ordinary.

I look forward to the responses I need all the help I can get.



Better picture of battery.

 

I would follow Andy's advice Especially since this is intermittent. If you have a marginal ground, all bets are off with respect to how these computer-controlled cars behave.

Be sure to check the connections at the BCM itself. There may be corrosion and you may need to sweep the contacts by attaching removing attaching removing etc the connectors.

 

Is their a diagram of Saturn motors out there that I can see where these grounds and bcm are? One thing I do notice is it only happens at night time or if I'm in the shade. I do live in Florida right now it's low mid 70's high low 90s. To the point I'm driving working fine then pull into a covered bank drive thru it starts to malfunction everything above mentioned. Then when I leave the covered area it starts to work fine again. Wish me luck today I'm going to give it the old college try. Much appreciated for everything I will let you know how it goes.