GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Not sure where the alleged "diode" is, just saw it in the electrical schematic...basically was looking for any point of failure...

I'm already going first thing tomorrow morning.

the matrix diagram shows some diodes by the hatch and hatch glass switches, and another pdf shows that the diodes are back by the hatch.When you open a door, do you get the door ajar light in the instrument cluster?When you turn the dimmer switch to on, do the dome lights come on?supposedly (I don't have power locks) if you have the key in the ignition, open the door, lock the door and then close the door, the doors are supposed to automatically unlock. Does your still do this? (test this with either a spare key handy or a window down, or fromthe inside, etc - don't lock keys in the car if this "feature" doesn't work anymore )

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Quote, originally posted by joatmon »the matrix diagram shows some diodes by the hatch and hatch glass switches, and another pdf shows that the diodes are back by the hatch.When you open a door, do you get the door ajar light in the instrument cluster?Yup.Quote »When you turn the dimmer switch to on, do the dome lights come on?Yup.Quote »supposedly (I don't have power locks) if you have the key in the ignition, open the door, lock the door and then close the door, the doors are supposed to automatically unlock. Does your still do this? (test this with either a spare key handy or a window down, or fromthe inside, etc - don't lock keys in the car if this "feature" doesn't work anymore )Yup. I'm pretty sure it's not the MAM because the buzzer warns me if the key is in or lights are on...So, that now brings the possibilities down to instrument panel wiring, or some diodes.It might be the diodes...I've seen diodes put out a lot of smoke...

one more test, if you have the timeremove the wiring connector from the dimmer switch. With the door open, take a small wire or other conductive thing that can fit in the tiny holes of the wiring connector and jumper pin one to pin 8 (it's an 8 pin connector, 1 and 8 are the two on the ends, a red w/white stripe and a red with blue stripe. This should simulate the dimmer switch being set to "door" mode. If the dome lights come on, then you may have a bad dimmer switch.

Ok, ran that test, no lights, so it's not the dimmer knob.Also ran the test of opening a different door, and that also yielded darkness.So, i'm still lost.And, I've decided I am not ALLOWING it to be the main wire harness...tnpartsguy was kind enough to quote me list price on that...You'd never guess.$1184

curses. That means that the dimmer switch isn't causing the lights to not come on, or at least if it is, it's not the only thing. I had to get a thin wire to get into the dimmer switch wiring connector, so I will assume that you used something small enough to be sure that you got good electrical contact between pins 1 and 8.ok. The dome lights come on when the dimmer switch is set to on. The Door ajar light in the dash comes on when the doors are opened. Did you test this with all of the doors, or just the driver's door? For now I assume that the door ajar light comes one whenever any one fo the doors or the hatch, or the hatch glass is opened.Looking at the wiring diagram, it seems to me that there is only way for these symptoms to coexist.The driver door switch is run directly into the integration relay (matrix term)/multifunction alarm module - MAM (vibe term) I'll call it the MAM. this door signal comes back out of the MAM and it tied to all of the other door switches. Since the door ajar light comes on whenever any of the doors is opened, then all this must be working ok. However, when a door is opened, this line, which should be ground when a door is opened, sin't making it to the dimmer switch. The wiring from the dimmer switch to the dome lights is ok because switching the dimmer to "ON" works. The Matrix wiring diagram shows the driver door signal coming out of the MAM and the combined signal of all of the other doors coming together at the dimmer switch. However, looking at my dimmer switch, there is only one red/white wire running to the connector, so these signals must be tied to gether at some other physical location, and then a single wire run to the dimmer switch. The matrix wiring diagram shows this:but it must really be something like this:and the onlything I can think of that makes any sense to cause a problem would be in the wire or junction block in the area I put a dashed line around. It doesn't seem to be a instrument wiring problem or a MAM problem, but may be a wire or a jumper in a junction block somewhere. At least that's how it seems to me, and am anxious to hear what the dealer has to say about it.

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Raging- Per the Vibe schematics, in vehicles with power door locks, none of the door switches directly connect to the Dimmer Switch. The front doors each go seperately to the MAM, and th other switches are all tied together and go into the MAM as a third signal. In "Door" mode, the only thing that activates the lights is the MAM. From your original picture, the smoke looks like it's coming from under the fuse block. This is where the MAM is.The MAM in general may still be working - but likely it has a transistor to act as a switch to turn on the dome lights. The Dome lights are tied to +12v from the DOME fuse, but the MAM provides the ground to turn them on through the Dimmer Switch in "DOOR". Lights act as resistors and limit current through them. If you had a short across the lights it would'nt have limited the current, and it could've smoked this transistor. The fuse may not have blown in time to protect the transistor.You probably won't see the damage, as the MAM is enclosed in plastic.

Well, on my way to the chopping block -- err dealer -- will post the findings when I return!

Good Luck Mike!!

I have returned.I have good news. I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to Geico!HA! Psych.No, it's ugly actually. I spent around 5 hours at the dealer, and they eventually came and told me they had to order a bunch of parts, and I was looking at "big bucks." I asked ballpark. He said upwards of $600, with labor. As bad as it sounds, it could've been worse -- if it had been the main wire harness, that would've been well over $1000.Anyway, he couldn't tell me every part I needed, but he did say the junction block (I assume fuse block, in this case) and multifunction alarm module were both toasted.So, looks like you guys were more or less on the money.I'll report back next week after I get the...*gulp* bill.

there are 2 items that i would refer to as a junction block. One is the super multi juction block, where all the main harnesses come together, and there is the sub-main fuse block. Both are in the area where your smoke was. The main fuse block is under the hood. Glad it wasn't the IP wiring harness, that price made me shudder last night.

bummer, $600 is a pileat least you seem to still have a positive attitude

Ooph! I'm going to agree with Joatmon here though. At least you're positive about it. Best of luck to you Ragingfish. Hopefully that's the worst it will get.

Yeah, I can't help but laugh about it. I know I didn't destroy anything HUGE now, and besides, it's my own damn fault.The guy came and said $600 to me, and I sighed relief. He's like you aren't mad? I said how can I be mad...in my quest to make my car MINE, I made a screw up. Now I gotta pay for it.I said, "that's the price I pay for modification." He laughed.Yeah, its' pretty much an entire paycheck for me...but hey...it coulda been SO much worse!I coulda been driving a FORD:

Hey - if you can manage to laugh at your problems - you've got my respect.Glad to hear it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Eh, did get a bit uglier tonight.My dome lights are totally dead now. Not sure if maybe the fuse went again, (don't think so since the RKE works). Another possibility. Noticed BOTH of my roof lenses are melted through...so perhaps they left them on too long, the lenses melted creating hot spots on the bulb, thus causing them to blow. Not sure.Will have to order new dome light lenses, and new assemblies. I'm going to have to rethink my "stealth" dome lights. Am thinking I will either (A) forget about LEDs in the domes (but it looks sooo cool! ) or will replace the domes entirely with LEDs, lose the incandescents (which, BTW, are melting the LED units too ), and then just convert my dome lights to the LEDs, so when I open the door, I get the red treatment instead.Decisions, decisions.

Quote, originally posted by ragingfish »Noticed BOTH of my roof lenses are melted through...so perhaps they left them on too long, the lenses melted creating hot spots on the bulb, thus causing them to blow. Not sure.Holy cr@p, raging, you've MELTED the lenses of your dome lights? That indicates to me that there's was some SERIOUS power going through those bulbs and/or LED's to generate THAT much heat! No wonder expen$ive $tuff under the dash got toasted. I feel for you. These stories may give you an indication why my Vibe will remain essentially stock:Years ago, I tried to install a car alarm on my mother's brand new 1978 Chevy Malibu. Blew a fusible link right near the engine when I dropped a wired component I was installing against the top of the 12V battery. The engine wouldn't even turn over! I already had the shop manuals so I was able to troubleshoot the burned link and repair it myself after an hour or two of 'profuse sweating', but I learned my lesson about 'do-it-myself' mods' when I wasn't 1000% sure what I was doing.While working as a PC tech, I installed a new tape drive in a PC, and somehow the drive was internally shorted. The main power transistor MELTED its solder joints and fell right off the tape drive circuit board onto the floor! Luckily we had an identical tape drive back at the shop, and the PC and it's power supply were still OK. Sent the defective drive back under warranty.I had a voltage regulator go bad on my 91 Pontiac 6000... It charged the battery up to 17 volts, toasted the alternator, and melted the case of my CD-player power adapter plugged in to the cigarette lighter (while I was listening to it) 120 miles from home! LOL

Quote, originally posted by kostby »Holy cr@p, raging, you've MELTED the lenses of your dome lights? That indicates to me that there's was some SERIOUS power going through those bulbs and/or LED's to generate THAT much heat! No wonder expen$ive $tuff under the dash got toasted. No more than usual. Two things are at play here:(A), I'm using "super white" bulbs. They appear to burn hotter than stock.(B) I modified my dome lamps. I shoved the LEDs AND the incandescent next to each other, in that tiny space. The incandescent was "jumpered" to the stock contacts using wires. These wires have slack, and the bulbs, in both lamps, drifted downward, so instead of the typical 1/4" to 1/2" of clearance between lens and bulb, there was only about 1/8" clearance or less...plus with the LED being in there, there was less room for the heat to dissipate...so I knew it would happen, I just didn't think so fast.I've ordered new dome lamp assemblies...I'm going to rework my plan.