Im hoping someone can help me sort out the electrical regarding the a/c and auto climate controls in my 1980 park ave. i bough the car in early 2016 . shes mint condition, so just working out a few bugs. I believe i have a couple issues happening: Im in Calgary Alberta Canada so the outside temperature swings are large. When outside temp are up and a/c is on i get flashing light code on the auto climate control unit. When outside temps are cooler, and a/c is off and only heat required, no flashing lights. all happy. Also ive been getting a lot of squealing from the radio when on. thought it might be the factory amp, but it went away when i unplugged the small square connector for the Cabin air temp sensor on the trim panel above the glove box. i have looked into the electric controlled coolant switch under the hood. the one in the heater hose. this cars unit is electrically controlled by the climate control unit i believe. the coolant valve was frozen. i removed it and freed it up. i tested the electrical motor portion which sits on top of the unit by connecting 12 v directly and it appears to operate normally in both directions. I sure could use a factory wiring diagram for the Auto Climate controls for that year. my Haynes and my online shop login are no help as this appears to be a little less common. is this a buick only setup? Thanks BuickShawn
Does the sticker on the a/c housing unde.r the hood have "C68" on it? If so, there are a lot of Cadillacs that use the same system. It was primarily a Cadillac and Buick option. And yes, it can be a ROYAL pain. Look under the dash on the passenger side and see if there is a rectangular black plastic box about 2 inches thick by 4.5 inches wide by 8 inches tall. looks SIMILAR to the item about halfway down in the attachment below. http://www.misterpeachy.com/VetteStuff/HVAC_Programmer.html . I have a trouble shoot guide from the 1984 or 1986 service manual (can't remember which one. About 20 pages, if I recall)
Hi Steve. thanks for the reply. this is an all-electric system. no vacuum components. my controller looks like this https://goo.gl/images/TzPQhD. there are only wires connecting to it. even the coolant valve in the heater hose is electrically operated which appears very rare. The dash looks like this example: http://www.fleetofcads.com/1509buick/1509buick67.JPG Any help is appreciated.
Yes, that looks like the same unit on the mid 80's units on Buick Regals and later Buick. The dash unit has three different electrical plugs on the back. That item in the background behind the control head goes into the 'suitcase' in the engine compartment in place of the standard three coil fan resistor bank. Go to the passenger seat floor. remove the black plastic trim pad. Look up on the outer edge for the black box, as described above earlier post. By the way, that style of radio in your posting was NOT available until 1984. Is the year you state for your car correct; 1980? POSITIVE it's not 1989 or 1990?Earlier radios had two distinct posts controls... There is a COMPLETE 1990 Buick full size wagon (blue with wood grain)with the electronic control system. I could get almost all of the system, definitely the components, but getting it to CANADA would be a problem (KA-CHING). Again the problem would be troubleshooting. Send me a PM/ conversation with a street address and I can send copies of the GM service manual applicable. PM sent (DUH)
My stepson had an S-10 he bought used and the previous owner had an aftermarket radio in it. he had brought it over one weekend and said his headlights would flash when he turned up the radio. I found the previous owner had wired the right dash speaker in with the light sensor for the headlights You said you unplug a connector for your radio and all is well? Maybe your radio wiring isn't connected properly
Thanks Guys for the replies. Definitely 1980 per original dealer paperwork and registration. Here are exact pics of the car: the previous ones were just reference pics from online so pls disregard. I have no reason to suspect anything in the car has been modified from original. thats not to say it wasnt i guess, but the PO had the car since new and was a factory original detail freak. maintenance log up to date every receipt since new, etc... Im getting a wierd interference of some type. when the radio is connected, as long as its turned off its ok. turn it on and after a little while a sudden and loud and consistent squeal from all speakers. i found (by accident) if i unplug the very small white connector going to the inside cabin air temp sensor(built into the woodgrain trim panel beside the passenger clock) the issue goes away and radio works normal. When dissconnected the heater also appears to work as normal with no panel codes. The only thing i notice is perhaps the interior air temp is not regulated as closely as before, maybe, not sure. not a deal breaker. Also my oldest boy when riding in front passenger seat would also get a good shock if he touched the woodgrain trim panel containing the air temp sensor with all things connected. dissconnect the small conn and all is well. so im suspecting the air temp sensor or this small black electrical relay looking item in the pics. i checked the resistance of the two leads on the cabin air temp sensor and they read 'open' as in no resistence. this is on the sensor itself with it dissconneced and away from the car. i presume there should be some resistance? i also measured the resistense of all 4 pins of the black item with all possible pairs and again no resistence to be found anywhere. i have found a wiring diagram for 1980 climate controls which shows the 'in car temp sensor'. For whatever reason this car appears to have an this additional electronic item in the harness with the wires to the sensor. Its a very small black item about the same size as a 80's Bosch headlight relay. it doesnt look aftermarket as it has the factory style connectors. see pic below. when this and the panel is disconnected, interference to radio is gone. I have a grey and black/white wire coming from dash to this unit. doesnt quite make sense according to the diagram and the small black item and its wiring is not identified. Im hoping if someone recognizes the small black item it would help troubleshooting. also, anyone have thoughts on finding a replacement air temp sensor? seems pretty unique item. my parts store guys just have blank stares...
I'm gonna go out on a limb here, but I've never seen a Delco radio with that type of knob arrangement, are you sure that's a Delco unit and not Audiovox? It sounds like its the radio causing all the upsets, you say as long as the radio is off, all is fine. Reason I mentioned the radio is Audiovox was producing direct fit radios for GM back in the early/ mid 80's Could be something crapped out in the radio (sounds like it) that is causing electrical interference with the climate control. Years ago I had installed LORAN on one of my boats (Long Range Navigation)..........before GPS was available to civilians. I couldn't figure out why after the LORAN acquired all the towers it would start dropping out, it wasn't for a couple weeks of fiddling I found out it was my stereo and 3 amplifiers that's caused all the interference, so whenever I used the LORAN, the stereo had to be off I think its your radio Oh, by the way, that's a sharp looking Electra!
I was going to say that I’ve never seen that radio either and ‘wow that’s cool!’. I zoomed in and it looks like it has the GM/Delco logo on the tuner face but can’t tell for sure. Even if it’s factory it could be causing the trouble though. Also, does your car have extra factory speaker locations? (I remember a slightly newer one that was built speakers in the dash, package tray, and all four doors. It sounded great!). Patrick
I googled the part number on the black thingy-it comes up as the inverter for the courtesy/dome lamps. I don’t know a lot about it but I think it’s for the exterior coach lamps, which aren’t simple bulbs but rather a complicated setup. Maybe it’s your problem? Patrick
That Looks like the same control head unit in the dash for the climate control. As others have said, I've never seen that style of radio before, but BUICK was, to MY knowledge, the only brand that used the term 'concert sound' on their radio system, usually on the door speakers though... Another thought crossed my mind. Where was the car BUILT? Some Canadian cars have options not available on US models; The C68 style AS/C was available, but I don't remember it being THAT far back. Maybe Canada only. The VIN would start with 1 if US built, @ if Canada built. HMMM when DID they start with the country of origin designation, 1979 if I recall. Did you look on the passenger side above the trim panel yet...? I hope those coach lights aren't the root of the problem.
Looking at that schematic it appears that it is in fact ALL electronic. I've never seem a unit like that. All I've seen went from the control head (dash panel unit) to a control box mounted on the side of the 'suitcase' as it is affectionately called, that contains four or five solenoids that control vacuum signals to conventional vacuum dampers, with an occasional one that used a motor on the water temperature control valve. I've never seen a 100% electric control system. Funny, as that the head LOOKS the same as later units, and has the same number of plugs. I guess that a total electric system uses just dc servo motors to control things. Apparently, I'm out... On an aside note, My nephew has a Crown Victoria with the Ford equivalent of C68 A/C. The A/C cooling doesn't work in the summer, and he found out recently (as it finally got cold enough to NEED heat, that the HEAT doesn't work effectively either... No wonder the car was cheap.
