HELP. Today I fucked up.

liquidefex

liquidefex

Greenie N00B Member
Greenie Member
So today I was installing a new amp for my door speakers. During which, I noticed an enormous bundle of wires hacked into the passenger footwell wiring harness with these t-junction things...I noticed that the other side of this rats nest wasn't connected to anything, it was just tucked up away behind the glovebox but not secured and definitely not factory. I wisely decided to remove all of the connections, and before you ask, I obviously did not take pictures or remember how they were all previously connected. What do you think I am, some sort of genius?

Throughout the amp install and speaker wiring I was regularly checking that speakers were working and that the car still had power, making sure I never shorted anything, but I never started the car during the process. Tonight after dinner and taking the dogs on a walk I decided to take the car (and the stereo) out for a test drive.

Lo and behold, the car will not crank and will not start. I insert the key, turn it on, get full power everywhere, depress the clutch, turn the key, and get not so much as a bump of the starter. The battery is definitely not dead, my check engine light is flashing, and the only codes I am getting are a P0403 from the EGR delete, and a U2604 which I am clueless about.

I should also mention that I have owned the car for three years and never knew this bundle of bullshit existed. So I am turning here for some advice and direction, because I feel like I am royally up shit's creek. Did I end up removing some sort of a previously installed remote start, or an immobilizer or something? I've never had to wait a period of time after inserting the key to start the car, and never had any time of a remote start or aftermarket panic alarm installed.

Recently I have finished a full engine rebuild and the car was running very well. I started it yesterday and drove it to run some errands. I had also installed a very modest tune via versatune for an intake/turbo inlet and EGR delete, but I've driven it for about a week with no negative effect on the car.

Check out these pictures to see what I am talking about and the location of the horror show. And please for the love of god, give me some advice on what to do next.

My only thought right now is that I want to get back in that passenger footwell, remove all of those bullshit clamp in/splice pieces, and properly reconnect all of the correct wires to their other sides. Then re-flash the stock tune to give the ECM something it knows, and see if I can get a crank after that.

Thanks for your time, gents.

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That looks like there may have been a remote starter installed at some point. To do that on a manual car you have to tap the clutch switch. My guess is maybe you upset something there and that wire is now broken.
 
@gotovato you think so? even though there is nothing near the steering wheel or ignition whatsoever? all of this stuff is located in the passenger footwell behind the kickpanel where the passengers right foot would sit.
 
liquidefex said:
@gotovato you think so? even though there is nothing near the steering wheel or ignition whatsoever? all of this stuff is located in the passenger footwell behind the kickpanel where the passengers right foot would sit.
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It still looks like a remote starter or alarm and they just tapped all the lines at the bcm instead of going to the column. I’m not 100% sure on that though
 
@gotovato yeah the more i google, the more i want to agree with you.



it looks like the smaller white plugs could've gone to an alarm/remote start module of some kind, but they are definitely not present in the car anywhere.


i just gave them a quick check, but all of the wires on the car still *look* intact. i'll give them a better look in the next day or two to see if any are broken or loose, but if they are all still intact then I am at a complete loss as to why this thing won't crank. i can even hear the fuel pump pressurize when I turn the key, it's like it does everything EXCEPT crank!
 
I also noticed that relay there. The relays are typically used to open the ignition wire circuit, or the starter signal wire. This is part of the alarm system that is usually bundled with these starters. When they use these relays they actually cut open the ignition/starter wire and splice the relay in between. If you remove the relay that wire is now open.

just another guess as to why you’re have this issue.
 
You, need to see 7of9's doctor. You got Borg infection

careful extraction for sure

To me, to many wire for a remote start, was thinkin stereo for a sec.
would the other leads go to aftermarket breakin sensors?

Agree that clutch interlock is likely electrical fail to start

check the infamous green starter wire, it will STB at times like this
 
It looks like most of those wires are just taps and as long as they didn't break the wire shouldn't really stop it from starting. Is there any cut factory wires in there (maybe with spade terminals on the ends? Hopefully that will clue you into what the relay was switching and allow you to bypass it entirely.
 
@nekret

Yeah that was my thought too. I've inspected them all on multiple occasions and they all still look and feel intact. There was only one that was completely cut and re-routed through the relay in the harness, but I clipped that out and reconnected the wire back to itself in the factory harness.

It's basically a no-start no crank right now. Still plenty of power, fully charged battery, instrument cluster dims and the AC display and media center dim when you turn the key to the start position, but no click from the starter whatsoever.

Tomorrow I will re-inspect everything and triple check all of it. I also haven't tried bump starting it yet, I feel semi-confident that it would run after a bump start because I think just the starter/ignition sequence is interrupted by something, but I haven't tested that theory yet.

Or if anyone knows someone that specializes in car audio/alarms/remote starts in the Tucson area, point them this way and I would gladly fork over some cash for a lesson in this stuff!
 
If the car had a wotbox at any point that will interrupt the signal to the coils and if you pulled those wires it is no longer connected. I will agree with the others though as it does look like it had a remote start at some point. It should not be too hard to inspect the OEM wires and see what not longer makes sense.
 
WELP.

Wanted to bring some closure to this thread. I got down and checked the harness in the passenger footwell and it turns out I had just done a poor job re-attaching two factory wires together. There is a grey/black wire that is a clutch signal switch that was severed and run through the relay pictured above whenever the previous owner did the install.

When I removed the aftermarket harness from the vehicle and reattached that grey/black wire, I used butt connectors and an external piece of similarly sized wire, but I apparently crimped too hard, not on the wire portion, but rather on the insulated portion, thus severing the wire once more, now just inside of a butt connector.

So, the wires were in fact *not* connected, even though I thought they were. I pulled out that connection, cleaned up the wires inside the factory harness, twisted some new wire in between and voila, she stated right up.

Then I cleaned it up, soldered the connection together and used some heat shrink to tidy up the whole mess, and now, although it doesn't look strictly factory in that area anymore, it doesn't look like a bored 12 year old tried to install some aftermarket bullshit, and the car is running swimmingly.

Thanks for dealing with my panicky posts, and thanks for the suggestions/direction!
 
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Glad you figured it out! Glad we were all pointing in the same direction too lol.
 
Thanks @gotovato yeah I was pretty beside myself.

I was like "...how is this possible?! I re-attached everything and just returned the car to stock, why won't it crank!?" Well, it turns out when all the wires aren't connected it throws a bit of a temper tantrum hahaha.

Now the get the clunk in the front end figured out, and find where an oil leak is coming from...then I should be mostly done with it!
 
Front end clunk you say? Check your sway bar bushings and end link connections. I had a clunk going on for about 4 months that I just couldn't find. It wasn't until I got a video from under the car while I rocked it around, was I able to see that the sway bar to end link connection was completely loose. Tightened it up and the noise was completely eradicated.

I Imagine that anytime I had the car in the air or the wheels turned so that I could get an arm on the suspension and move stuff around that the end link would bind and work as a complete unit and not budge under force.
 
liquidefex said:
but I apparently crimped too hard, not on the wire portion, but rather on the insulated portion, thus severing the wire once more, now just inside of a butt connector.


Thanks for dealing with my panicky posts, and thanks for the suggestions/direction!
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That is a tough diagnosis, on several fronts, strong work.
 
@Anaphra

Yeah I did the sway bar end links a few weeks back and it didn't fix the issue, but you are exactly right! Replaced the front two sway bar bushings two days ago and BAM this thing got SUPER tight, and super quiet, instantly, it was awesome.


@Meicalnissyen

Thanks man! I racked my brain for a while and after looking at a few wiring diagrams I was like "there's no way it could be anything else, it just has to be something I messed up when I was reconnecting stuff, so I checked it out and sure as shit, that was it!
 
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