Hello all, I just joined the forum and could use some help figuring out the issue I am having with my '03 Monte LS.

My mother got a new Malibu last fall, and in December I got her old car. It's a great car with low (62,000) miles for the year.

But this week, I've started experiencing a strange electrical issue, so I thought I'd join this forum and ask the Monte experts for some assistance in diagnosing the the problem.

Earlier this week I went grocery shopping. When I came out of the store and went to go home, I started the car and went to turn the heat on. The fan would not blow any air. Then, I noticed the "cruise" light in the dash was blinking on and off. After turning the ignition off and on several times, the cruise light stopped blinking and the heater fan started working again. Since then, it has been an intermittent problem. Each time when it happens, I turn the car off and on a few times until it stops. Also, one time I was on the highway with the cruise control on, and all of a sudden the cruise turned off on its own. Again, the only way to get it to work again was to shut the car off and restart it a few times.

I'm a 50 year old male who is mechanically inclined, and I've worked on cars since my teens. But I've never experienced anything like this and I'm stumped. The only thing I could think of was maybe one of the battery terminals was a bit loose, so I checked, and they were both tight. Just for the heck of it, I removed each battery cable and cleaned the terminals (they weren't corroded, however) in hopes that would solve the problem, but no such luck.

Also, the fuel gauge is not working properly. It reads full all the time, until getting to the point where the low fuel light comes on. My mother says it has been that way for a year or so, therefore I'm not sure if it is related to the recent issues I'm having. My brother said he thinks (guessing) it is the sending unit?

Anyhow, I would greatly appreciate any guidance from anyone who may have any ideas.

Rick

 

Fuel issue sounds like the sending unit. I dont know if cruise is effected by the BCM but its a possibility. However the first thing that comes to mind is a bad blower ground, bad grounds cause all sort of strange problems. I know on the SS under the windshield cowl on the passenger Side there is a airport filter and the blower motor for the heater. Its accessible from the outside. Start by looking in there to see if you are getting water in there as that could cause electrical systems to short or corrode. Also you should be able to take your car to a shop and have them use an advanced scanner to check your BCM codes. BCM's will throw lots of little codes for everything from a bulb being out to a system failing. Look for anything related to the blower motor or the cruise system. My shop will do it for free, but I know sometimes shops will charge you for silly things, start with checking grounds. Autozone has alot of wiring and component diagrams on their website to help you locate things.

 

Other possible causes are a bad HVAC panel and bad bacm grounds. Underneath the steering column and ignition are where these grounds are located.

Could also be blower motor resistor. The cruise control is tied in to the HVAC systems so this could be an issue.

 

Thanks a bunch for your suggestions!!

I will check out the things you mentioned as soon as I can. It's in the mid 40's here today and I'd love to go out and check it out, but it has been raining all day.

It looks like I may be able to tomorrow though, I'll let you know if I have success.

Again, thanks a lot for your assistance, and have a great weekend!!


Rick

 

I would suspect the ignition switch as the cause of your electrical gremlins.

The gauge reading full all the time indicates a short to ground in the wiring or a defective sending unit/float.

 

I would say ignition switch. I had the same issues and that fixed them for me. My gas gauge never acted up though so I would say that is a separate issue possibly.