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Both Front doors wiring harness issue

31K views 36 replies 19 participants last post by  osagebarber 
#1 ·
About six months ago I noticed that the door chime wasn't working some of the time. Then I noticed that the front speakers would only work some of the time. I decided to investigate and found that were the front doors wiring harness connects to the cars coupler has over time gotten water in to the coupler and the pins have corroded and broke. I would like to hear if any body else is having this issue.
 
#3 ·
greentraverse said:
Yes, others have had problems. Not a lot of them, but a few. If you search for door harness here, you'll probably find them.
I believe that rbarrios has even posted pictures of the harness, if you can believe that!

Not sure if it is on only this site, or perhaps one of the other forums also.
 
#4 ·
hi.
I had posted pics of the connectors on the rear doors-- from when I was doing the 3rd row speaker upgrade.

For the front doors--- its good to have those one of those little mirrors on a telescoping wands- (available at auto parts.)
 
#5 ·
I've had the same problem with my door chime, and front driver door speaker not working also! usually after it rains, when the humidity is high, or it is under 65-70 degrees outside... weird I know. and I thought it was weird when I've read on other threads and posts on this site of other people mentioning the same thing, but there's actually some kinda weird truth in what I, and other people are saying about this.

I've also read that it could possibly stem from something wrong with the sound/radio amplifier, or the wiring harness(es) coming from it, to the speakers.

something that GM needs to address and fix, I think. I love jammin n rockin out on the way to work and lots of other times, but pisses me off that the sound system doesn't sound as good as it should (and previously had, up until last summer)....[/color]
:angryfire:
 
#6 ·
Four doors; Water in wiring harness issue

2010 Traverse
The problem started with the rear passenger window not closing from the drivers door occasionally in 2014. Through 2017 it was a minor inconvenience. In October 2017 all speakers except the tweeters stopped working intermittently. It appeared related to Car washes, Rain and or High Humidity and cooling temperatures that caused condensation.

When the door connectors were disconnected, Water poured out or dripped out heavily. We allowed them to drain for several hours several times. We sprayed the connectors with contact cleaner and blew them dry with canned air, reconnecting them after another hour or so.

The problem was resolved until we had a moderate rain.

Water can run down between the doors and frame but should not ba able to enter the harness.

Has anyone found a permanent resolution to this defect.
 
#8 ·
2010 Traverse
The problem started with the rear passenger window not closing from the drivers door occasionally in 2014. Through 2017 it was a minor inconvenience. In October 2017 all speakers except the tweeters stopped working intermittently. It appeared related to Car washes, Rain and or High Humidity and cooling temperatures that caused condensation.

When the door connectors were disconnected, Water poured out or dripped out heavily. We allowed them to drain for several hours several times. We sprayed the connectors with contact cleaner and blew them dry with canned air, reconnecting them after another hour or so.

The problem was resolved until we had a moderate rain.

Water can run down between the doors and frame but should not ba able to enter the harness.

Has anyone found a permanent resolution to this defect.
Go to the auto parts store and get some dielectric grease. Take the connector apart and put some grease on each pin and put it back together.

 
#9 ·
Some have also cut a very small hole in the bottom of the rubbery harness conduit at the very bottom when it's connected to allow incoming water to drain. I had to do the same in my 2008 Outlook with the blower motor cover (above the front passenger floorboard below the dash) to allow accumulated (dash? condensation?) water to drain after it killed one blower motor.
 
#17 ·
I have a 2009 Chevy Traverse with the water in the door harness connectors. I already had to replace speakers and I put holes in the bottom of the rubber cover but it didn’t really help. The rear speakers are working ok right now but the front ones are bad again. My husband came across a YouTube video where a guy glued rubber flaps over the top of the connectors. If you look at the door jam you can see that water runs down the inside to the top of the hinge and then down to the connector. So today I used trim tape and taped flaps over the connectors. I hope this works. We’ve had a few dry days and the right rear speaker is working again and I’ve ordered speakers fir the front. Hopefully the flaps will take care of this issue. I’ll let you know.
 
#19 ·
I just acquired a 2009 Traverse. Mostly in pretty good shape, but two power windows operated sporadically and three door speakers were shot. Turns out all four doors have been leaking quite badly. I had to replace three power window switches and I'm about to replace all the speakers.

I understand there might be ways to protect the electrical contacts with grease. But is there anything that can be done as far as the weather stripping to prevent the water from getting into the doors in the first place?
 
#20 ·
Pretty much "no". The weather stripping on this or any other vehicle surrounds the raised inner part of the door. The door jambs, latches, hinges, and everything else to the outside is exposed to the elements.

If your bulkhead connections aren't already corroded away spray both sides with contact cleaner, let dry and apply waterproof grease to the contacts and connector faces before reassembling.
 
#21 ·
On my used '10 I was fortunate that only the driver door lock switch contacts (connector bottom row) were rotted. My non-functioning door speakers were in fact all blown out. They are easily the worst speakers I've ever laid eyes on. Lol
The $100/4 JVC speakers I replaced them with aren't great but they sound okay and have restored all of my chimes, spoken instructions, hands-free calling, etc.

I'm waiting for the weather to warm up a bit here in Michigan before I search for a way to bypass the broken lock contacts.
 
#23 ·
How do I access the wires on the vehicle side of that connector? Have you looked behind the kick panel trim?
I don't know how much stuff has to be removed to access the harness in that area.
I think it might be way easier to splice into those wires where they go into the BCM.


This is why I've started two topics in the electrical section looking for answers to this...
 
#27 ·
You had posted those in an older thread and they are the basis for my knowledge of the wire colors and pin numbers I posted in #25.

I need the next downstream destination of those 2 wires...at the gray connector on the BCM.

These diagrams are most helpful and they do turn up in Google searches--making them useful to others far beyond this little forum.
Thank you for going to the trouble to post them.
 
#28 ·
This diagram is X500 pin 12.

Schematic Font Rectangle Parallel Pattern


This diagram shows ckt 168 (pin #11), appears to go to the BCM. I can't find a specific wiring diagram, but you can see it going to the BCM here (lower right grouping, 5th ckt from the right):
Font Parallel Pattern Rectangle Number


I get the wiring manual from alldatadiy.com. If you're really going to get into this, you might want to sign up for your model year. It's about $25-30/yr. Not always easy to navigate the diagrams, but better than nothing.
 
#29 ·
Ckt 780 & 781 (pins 35 & 34 from harness connector) go to BCM pins 12 & 11. Should I assume "X7" is the Gray connector I've been told to look at?
In this photo it's 7th from the left, and it's gray.
I had assumed the BCM connectors would be a huge locking affair with dozens of wires like the door harness connector.
This doesn't look so bad & probing the few wires on just the gray plug should be easy.

Electronic component Font Circuit component Hardware programmer Computer hardware
 
#31 ·
I don't know which connector is which on the BCM, but it would SEEM to make sense that they are numbered from one end to the other. But which end is X1 and which is X7? I guess I'd look for the right wire colors on the right pins of the two connectors on each end to see which one matches colors/pins to what you expect.
 
#32 ·
Nice warm day so I hurried home & grabbed an armload of tools to run 2 new wires around the broken pins. I cut & spliced into the door harness and secured the new wires to the harness inside the door. Poked a hole in the big grommet & fished the wires thru.
I drilled small holes on each side of the weatherstrip but couldn't pass the wires thru. I think there may be reinforcing near the lower hinge. So I drilled thru the pinch weld and passed the wires thru there. 2 layers of heat-shrink protect the wires and a little blob of sticky window sealant on the outer side insures no water will follow the wires.

I used Scotchlock splices to attach my new wires to the pink & orange wires on the BCM. Please no lectures on how crappy Scotchlocks are--I'm aware--but this is a clean, dry location and almost no current flows thru these wires.

Beginning to end this repair took about 1.5 hours to complete. My door lock switch now works as it should. I'm super grateful the knee bolster didn't have to come off--the BCM is easy to access once the black cover panel above your feet is removed (3 pushpins).

It seems like a minor inconvenience for that button to not work, or to have to fumble for the buttons on the fob to unlock the doors for a passenger...but over time it just irritated the heck out of me.

Electrical wiring Gas Cable Motor vehicle Auto part


On to the next problem...!
 
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