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Question
I have a 2000 Cadillac STS with fairly low miles. The other day out if nowhere I went to warm my car up in the morning and was not getting power to many components in the vehicle. Specifically rear defrost,power locks,trunk,gas panel,interior lights such as dome lights and lights in the visors. Everything else works and I have checked several if not all the fuses. I was told maybe a relay or something like that. Do you have any ideas what this could be?
Hello,
I doubt if you checked all the fuses because you have more than 1 fuse box. The only way to properly check the is with a multi meter or a cheap test light. Looking at them is not good enough, because you could have a blown fuse and not see it.
My concern here is that it is not going to be one relay or a bad fuse because you are talking about different circuits. When you mention the gas panel, I assume you are referring to the gas gauge.
You might nave a bad electrical ignition switch (not the key/ lock cylinder).
Could be a bad fusible link and could even be a bad bcm (computer).
I might even consider a ground wire might be the issue. You are dealing with many different circuits, but they do share common grounds and this might be your first shot after checking all fuses. Ground wire locations you might look for and tighten would be under the dash and in the kick panel areas. You would see many black wires with eyelets and a bolt going through them. Tighten the bolts accordingly.
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Rob Painter
Expertise
Alarm system questions cannot be answered on this forum. These systems are not what I can answer. Without being physically at the vehicle and not knowing what kind of electrical service has been done on the vehicle, there is no possible way to give an accurate answer over the internet. My expertise is in Ignition/key based anti-theft systems. These issues include GM VATS (resistor chip in key blade) PASSLOCK (MRD)-ignition lock rotation based, no special ignition key and the PKIII Transponder (computer chip in key) systems. These systems are not alarm based and are integral with the starting of the engine. This is why I cannot diagnose alarm problems without physically looking at the vehicle: Alarm systems are a completely different annimal than ignition key/lock based anti-theft system. Many alarm questions come from vehicles 10 years old, and since older, many hands that had been involved over the years.I am an expert in all GM factory (ignition/key based)systems. Alarm system questions pose to many situations beyond my knowledge as to what has been done to the vehicle over the years. Some guy may have actually wired the stereo into the alarm system. Who knows? Over my past 30 years in vehicle wiring repair, I have seen unbelievable wiring disaters done by guys that consider themselves "mechanics." I have seen stereos and alarms intalled using surgical tape. I have seen modules burn up, un-fused circuits, wiring jambed between the doors and even lamp cord used for a starter kill. To answer alarm questions over the internet without examining the vehicle is like asking; What does it take to remove a dent?
Experience
Education/Credentials-ASE certified. 11 years with a GM dealer and 17 years with a repair facility dealing with only the repair of theft recovered vehicles.
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