Symptom Related Diagnostic Procedures

Most intermittents are caused by faulty electrical connections or wiring, although occasionally a sticking relay or solenoid can be a problem. Some items to check are:

- Poor mating of connector halves, or terminals not fully seated in the connector body (backed out).
- Improperly formed or damaged terminals. All connector terminals in problem circuits should be carefully reformed to ensure good contact tension.
^ Use a corresponding mating terminal to cheek for proper tension. One source of a corresponding terminal is the J 35616 Connector Test Adapter Kit. This kit should also be used whenever a diagnostic procedure requests probing a terminal. Using the test adapter will ensure that no damage to the terminal will occur.
- Poor terminal-to-wire connection. Checking this requires removing the terminal from the connector body. Some conditions which fall under this description are poor crimps, poor solder joints, crimping over wiring insulation rather than the wire itself, corrosion in the wire-to-terminal contact area, etc.
- Wire insulation which is rubbed through, causing an intermittent short as the bare area touches other wiring or parts of the vehicle.
- Wiring broken inside the insulation. This condition could cause a continuity check to show a good circuit, but if only 1 or 2 strands of a multi- strand-type wire are intact, resistance could be far too high. This is of particular importance in the VATS (PASS-Key) key detection circuit, in which resistance is critical.

If a visual (physical) check does not find the cause of the problem, the vehicle can be driven with a voltmeter connected to the suspected circuit. An abnormal voltage reading when the problem occurs indicates the problem may be in that circuit. In the case of the circuits which can be monitored by using the CCM's on-board diagnostic capabilities, these may be monitored for abnormal voltages, counts, etc. which occur at the same time the problem occurs, possibly indicating a problem with that circuit.