Here's the story.....
Daughter has 2003 Grand Am and was having the same issues you all describe with the security system. In fact, I found this forum looking for a fix.
As a separate problem, her battery kept going dead so I put in a new battery. A day or two later the battery was dead again. Pulled alternator and replaced it. I noticed that the wire insulation coming out of the harness leading into the plug that goes into the alternator was brittle and weathered due to the engine heat and vibration.
I cut off the old plug, being sure to leave as much wire coming out of the harness as possible. Took the plug to Car Quest and they matched it up. (Cost was around $5.00) Spliced the wires from the harness to the wires on the new plug making sure the wire colors from the harness were going to the correct pins. (Used old plug wire colors for reference.) I made the splices the old school way. (Yeah, I'm old.) Any way, I twisted the wires tightly together and wrapped each with electrical tape. This was done a year and a half ago and the security light and all it's issues has not happened since.
I think the issue is an engineering fault. The wires coming out of the harness are very light gauge. The wire insulation breaks down causing intermittent low amp shorts that the computer reads as someone tampering with the car. The computer does it's job and kicks on the security system.
I may be out in left field on this but happily my experience over the past year and a half has been a good one.
dmishler
Daughter has 2003 Grand Am and was having the same issues you all describe with the security system. In fact, I found this forum looking for a fix.
As a separate problem, her battery kept going dead so I put in a new battery. A day or two later the battery was dead again. Pulled alternator and replaced it. I noticed that the wire insulation coming out of the harness leading into the plug that goes into the alternator was brittle and weathered due to the engine heat and vibration.
I cut off the old plug, being sure to leave as much wire coming out of the harness as possible. Took the plug to Car Quest and they matched it up. (Cost was around $5.00) Spliced the wires from the harness to the wires on the new plug making sure the wire colors from the harness were going to the correct pins. (Used old plug wire colors for reference.) I made the splices the old school way. (Yeah, I'm old.) Any way, I twisted the wires tightly together and wrapped each with electrical tape. This was done a year and a half ago and the security light and all it's issues has not happened since.
I think the issue is an engineering fault. The wires coming out of the harness are very light gauge. The wire insulation breaks down causing intermittent low amp shorts that the computer reads as someone tampering with the car. The computer does it's job and kicks on the security system.
I may be out in left field on this but happily my experience over the past year and a half has been a good one.
dmishler
