help w/01 Impala nightmare

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RedFish

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Not a Mopar so fingers crossed here...
Anyone who has owned a GM product built between 95 and 05 know about the electrical failures. To make matters worse, this 2001 Impala was once a police cruiser. I'll post pics later.
The person who removed all the add-ons left 5 clipped wires under the passengers front carpet, all 5 hot at switch on. There are smaller add-on wires spliced into the factory wiring from bumper to bumper.
Now I'm aware that the passlock/fail to start problem is typical and probably not related to the add-on crap in this case.
Here's what is making me crazy.. The turn signals dont work but while that switch is activated left or right the hazard/signal flasher module ( it's also the hazard switch mounted in the dash ) makes a stange buzzing noise and the electric fuel pump in the tank starts and runs continuous.
I've googled and read a lot of stuff about the electrical in these cars during the past 8 days and not found a similar fault.
If anyone here has an idea where the problem might be hiding, I'm all ears.
TIA
 
Holy Jeez Ben.....you actually needing help with something elec...that dont happen too often! Sorry to hear bout the issues, maybe 67Dart273 will chime in here. I couldnt imagine the elec nightmare on an ex cop-car
 
Sounds like power my be back feeding somehow, have you checked the flashers tomake sure their not shorted internally? Also hve you followed the five hot wires to see where they go/come from? They my hve used that switch to control a relay if your lucky and you can find it pretty easy and see if the just used a heavier gauge wire and twisted five smaller wires onto it so its easy to remove but thats wishful thimking lol if it was me i would start removing those wires one by one. I install gps locators on cars that the car lot next to our sho, so ive seen the horrors of wiring jobs inexperienced people do especially when their only chosen because of how cheaply they will do it
 
I may end up going the parts yard and pull a entire harness from a non police build.
Theres a little button beside the headlight switch marked survellience mode. It disables every lamp on the car including the dash lights that come on with the ignition switch alone. As far as I can tell, a lot of this extra wiring was factory addions and only a portion of it was added aftermarket.
I just found a neumatic bulb under the carpet on the drivers side. Step on it creates a air pressure signal that opertaes a switch with relays straped to the steering column.
I dont know what the heck it did.
Taking on these sort of jobs that no one else will touch proves I'm insane. LOL
 
If you're scratching your head I know you don't need any of suggestions from me. It would be way over my head.
 
The turn signal module sounds like its running 2000 flashes per second while it runs the electric fuel pump instead of the turn signals.
My initial theory, the wiring to the fuel pump and the wiring to the rear signals is in the same harness routed front to rear. If that's correct there could be 2 wires touching in that harness that shouldn't touch.
The fact that the hazard flashers operate perfectly and do not run the fuel pump makes me question my theory.
 
I'm nearly convinced a piece of electronic crap called Body Control Module is at the root of all evils in this car. No means to diagnose it or program its replacement :(
 
For what it is worth, you could try getting into touch with Chevy. They are pretty receptive to customer questions, and since they were putting out cruisers that eventually get put into the civilian population, they can probably answer the questions on things that would need to be changed or removed. In this case, they can probably answer the wiring questions, or at least point you in the right direction.
 
mypunkrock said:
For what it is worth, you could try getting into touch with Chevy. They are pretty receptive to customer questions, and since they were putting out cruisers that eventually get put into the civilian population, they can probably answer the questions on things that would need to be changed or removed. In this case, they can probably answer the wiring questions, or at least point you in the right direction.
Click to expand...

Thanks,
I've already planned to stop by the dealership while I'm out on Tuesday.
 
I had a 2001 Monte Carlo at one time. Signal lights stopped working but made crazy sounds in the hazard button but fuel pump seemed unaffected. Changed the Hazard light switch out with a new one from the dealer....couple years ago but remember is was around $40 and everything was back to normal. Hope this helps. Can't all drive Mopars all the time when you have to drive 100+ miles a day back and forth to work. Bought this car for the big interior and the honest 30 mpg. It served its purpose but now it is gone.
 
I got a 2007 Impala 9c1 police car for my daughter. It is pretty much wired the same as a non-police car with a few heavy gage extra terminals for add ons. You right, the body computer is what does all the different things, at least on a 2007. On mine the dome lights were disabled, all the wiring and switches are there and the dash knows when a door is open and the light comes on when you swich it, but not when you open a door. To make it work I was told by the dealer I could buy a $75 special program from the factory and then pay 1/2 hour labor to have it flashed to the body computer and my dome light would work normally. I said no thanks, funny they charged the police $100 for that "option" in the first place! On my 2005 GMC my trialer harness was flashing all kinds of lights wrong on the trailer, I looked forevery for shorts or miswired stuff on the truck and the trailer finally to discover just a $60 flasher relay was wrong. In and out in 5 minutes. I also had to do the guage motors and one window swich on that truck and that was all when it was only 5 years old. They used some crap electronics on GM stuff those years.
The good thing was my 9c1 had headlight flashers and taillight flashers from the factory, all they needed was a swich to activate them. That's kind of fun, but would never reccomend using them to clear slow cars from riding side by side in the fast lane.
I'm actually watching the auctions now for Hemi Chargers. They show up but are $7000 or more compared to $4000 or less for a similar mile and age crown vic or Impala.
You can just buy a used body computer from the junk yard and then take it to the dealer for programming for your car, that saves a little as I think the computer is the same weather its a cop car or not, just programmed differently. I don't think the computer will work as is unless it gets your vin and mileage flashed to it.
 
Wish ya luck, Redfish. I have absolutely no docs on "that stuff."
 
I'm actually watching the auctions now for Hemi Chargers. They show up but are $7000 or more compared to $4000 or less for a similar mile and age Crown Vic or Impala.
Click to expand...
Yeah the Hemi's are worth the extra 3K. A Crown Vic is a warmed over 77 T Bird that handles like crap, and is a slow wallowing hog compared to the LX Hemi. That Impala is also a dinosaur front wheel drive GM chunk of poor handling, under powered Iron as well.

Drive the crap out of a Hemi LX, than jump into the two above mentioned antiques for a repeat performance, and be prepared to be under whelmed.

Disclosure:
I have owned a 2007 300C AWD for five years.
 
Nightmare Impala leaves here today. Glad to see it go.
Sometime Monday it occured to me that my neighbor works for the county as maint' electrician so I called in a favor.
After a phone call from a county fleet maint' tech' I took the cars ignition switch completely apart, cleaned carbon build up from every contact in it. Cured !
The turn signal circuit was drawing enough current from the other weak connections to cause the ECU to restart the fuel pump prime cycle repeatedly. The BCM had to be experiencing the same 12, <12, 12, <12, voltage supply when the signal switch was activated too. It's no wonder the darn thing wouldn't start.
Just another example of electronics that are designed to operate on 12 volts trying to operate on less that 12 volts.
All the police car crap is now removed or disabled so if the car comes back, I will know what is NOT involved.
 
I don't know when car makers will learn that you can't switch the hydroelectric plant on/ off with a 2 dollar toggle switch.
 
I'm going to take a guess here and offer that the five wires cut off under the seat are related to the "fasten seatbelt" light and the two-stage air bag sensor for the passenger seat.

Used to use squibs on helicopters with winches. Have a problem with a load on the end of the line, pop the squib and cut the line. Better to lose the load than the ship. Although disconnecting the electrical lead would render the squib inert, there were plenty of stories around about folks who had bad experiences with them and static electricity. These things are like mini-blasting caps. Don't know if air bag squib will detonate without the under seat connections, but it's worth asking.
 
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