Thread: Help!! Defroster, Radio, Power Doorlock Problem

Hello and thanks for checking out my post. Hopefully I have put it in the right place.

My 2001 Grand Prix (175,000mi) has been treating me great for the past two years so it has been a while since I have been on here. Unfortunately last month three things seemed to pop up intermittently and are now become a consistent problem.

Problem: Power door locks stopped working, I can hear the relay clicking however it seems like the switches are not getting enough power to lock/unlock. Sometimes if pressed several times they will work to a varying degree. At the same time my rear defroster has stopped working. I have located the relay and it still works. When I press the rear defroster button or power door lock switch the radio will shut off. Now radio does not always come on.

Diagnosis so far: I checked the battery and it has 12.5v with car off 14.89 with car on. I have checked all the fuses have continuity, something interesting I noticed was that the three systems I am having problems with are in same row in fuse box. I located several grounds disconnected them, wire brushed and reconnected, to no avail. I wanted to take a look at the back of the fuse box to see if there were any visible signs of a short however its is proving to be a pain so before I go further I wanted to reach out to everyone here for help.

If you have any useful suggestion on what/where I should check I would greatly appreciate your help.

Thanks for posting a reply.

That is located by the emergency brake correct? That is a pricey part, is the anyway I can test to see if that is definitely the problem? I am having a hard time locating instructions for replacing BCM on here or in Hayes manual. Is it an easy swap or is there programing required?

I have been able to locate 3 grounds one on steering column, one behind fuse box, and one on beneath passenger door step (very rusty). Does anyone know any locations of any others I can check?

Originally Posted by Sykkel

Hello and thanks for checking out my post. Hopefully I have put it in the right place.

My 2001 Grand Prix (175,000mi) has been treating me great for the past two years so it has been a while since I have been on here. Unfortunately last month three things seemed to pop up intermittently and are now become a consistent problem.

Problem: Power door locks stopped working, I can hear the relay clicking however it seems like the switches are not getting enough power to lock/unlock. Sometimes if pressed several times they will work to a varying degree. At the same time my rear defroster has stopped working. I have located the relay and it still works. When I press the rear defroster button or power door lock switch the radio will shut off. Now radio does not always come on.

Diagnosis so far: I checked the battery and it has 12.5v with car off 14.89 with car on. I have checked all the fuses have continuity, something interesting I noticed was that the three systems I am having problems with are in same row in fuse box. I located several grounds disconnected them, wire brushed and reconnected, to no avail. I wanted to take a look at the back of the fuse box to see if there were any visible signs of a short however its is proving to be a pain so before I go further I wanted to reach out to everyone here for help.

If you have any useful suggestion on what/where I should check I would greatly appreciate your help.

Hey Sykkel, any luck with this issue? Just recently I am faced with this EXACT dilemma. I haven't wire brushed any grounds as of yet but plan to this weekend. I'm still researching all the locations of the grounds. I understand that there are 5 major grounds? I want to attack the fuse box area first cause I feel that this is where the problem is, Any way, if you can share any of your success if any, I would greatly appreciate it. I plan on writing a "How To" about this very subject cause I know somebody else ig gonna be faced with it.

i m having the same problem. when i hit a bump i noticed my heater blower turns off and on, my rear defroster don't work and the date does not save on the info center above the radio any help would be greatly appreciated. i have not checked any grounds at this point. i will check each n every one tomorrow and also check on this bcm hopefully this will fix the prob, i will update this thread tomorrow and let u guys know how i make out. however i m open to any and all suggestions feel free to submit anything u feel may b helpful in my quest on fixing this stubborn problem.

bizimac i actually should tell you the entire story before i get too deep into this issue. And let me sat that I feel that you truly have a ground problem. This problem actually started around this time last year. Radio was fading in and out, the rear defogger when turned on, virtually wiped out any sound from my radio. i could still hear my radio, but is had a lot of static. this told me that I could be having a ground issue. well, after about a month of steady degradation of those before mentioned components my radio(s) sound finally bit the bullet, I say "sound" only because the radio was still getting power and appeared to still work...just no dang sound. So my first guess was possibly the Bose amp. (I ordered my car back in 1998 and asked for it to be fully loaded)
So i called Morad and ordered a used replacement Bose amp hoping this would remedy that problem. well it didn't. so now I'm throwing good money at a problem rather than taking the time to diagnose the problem. Lesson learned....so i thought. After talking to an electronic technician at my job, he suggested a temporary fix for the radio. because he was convinced (but not totally sure) that I am having a ground problem, and he dare not get in too deep with chasing that gremlin, he suggested that I pop the hood and run a line from the engine compartment fuse box. The positive battery post, over to the front passenger side door, and through the fuse box door inside the car, right into my fuse box "radio" terminal. he did a quick demonstration and it worked. Man....I dam-near cried when I heard sound from my speakers. Well I couldn't get home quick enough to do it cause I didn't have a radio for about three weeks prior. Well his suggestion did work and that was good enough for me for the moment.

Summertime soon approached and I wanted to commit to fixing this ground thing by cleaning all the ground points and possibly upgrade the wires and possibly relocate to a better ground location. As usual, life got in the dam way and I never got in done. to this day that dag on wire is still in place and I got sound......feel me. Now winter is knocking on our doors and I need my rear defogger to work as well as all the other components, so I ordered a BCM (Body Control Module) from Morad last week and replaced it with my original one. So while I had the battery disconnected I decided to look a little deeper into the fuse box; the one behind the glove compartment door. I didn't see any apparent obvious signs of rust at the ground point but I still want to clean it like all the other ground points. While there I also took a look at the two relays in that same area. I remember hearing the relay click whenever I activated the rear defogger. Because I felt it might be failing, I swapped the relays in hopes that one would be healthier than the other and this would help me to determine that it could simply be a bad or failing relay. After swapping I tested to see if I was going to get that crazy radio interference/static and I did. So to me the relays are not bad at all but I'm not ruling them out. Again, I keep hearing that sound in the back of my head saying "bad ground dude, bad ground man.......now stop playing around and fix it.

I'm not sure how bad your situation is but I purchased my 99 GTP back around Christmas of 1998. She's got 263K and after I did that LIM (lower intake manifold) job I feel like she's gonna run forever. LOL I guess what I'm saying is that for the learning experience, tracking down a bad ground can be a bear, but after I find it, I'll be golden. And without this cool forum (mad kudos to GP Forums) here to help us wanna be mechanics I/we would truly be broker than broke.....if you know what I mean. Any who, I will keep you posted with my progress, if any. And you please do the same. if you need pics of what I did to get the amp powered-up again let me know. I don't know your setup so I might be wasting your time. And.....all this bandwidth was worth it. Like freakin therapy to me man. Whew.......I feel all better now. Peaces!