Working on my brother 02 bonneville ssei about 180k miles on it. He parked it waiting on tires from a shop, he took the battery out because it was going to be a week before the tires would be in and it was going to be in the negative degree's all week. He put the battery back in the car and turned the key and he said smoke came from the radio, then the UNKNOWN DRIVER light came up, I discounted the battery and let it sit a day to try and reset everything and same thing. checked the rear fuse box and I had 5 blown fuses. pass module, driver module, ignition switch, radio, rrdr module and then one under the hood an aux fuse was blown too. I used to work with a master mechanic and he said its not a good deal which I figured it wasn't so he printed off a diagram on how the modules were being power and go figure they are all tied in some where with the same little orange wire with about 20 other things. I have tore into the somewhat easy wiring to try and find a broke little orange wire and have had no luck. Tried unplugged each module separately and replacing the fuse to see if it was one bad module, blow's the fuses to them every time other then on the ignition switch fuse and the aux fuse. was hoping to find a broken wire in one of the rubber moldings that connects the door to the body but no luck. I plugged in my older Snap-On scanner to see if I could find any code but when I go under the window modules it just says known code 1 threw 10 with no info obviously I can't wait the modules on the scanner because they just blow the fuses right away. I have looked at the ignition switch wiring it looks fine and also the radio from what I can see and pull out. I'm assuming its not the ECM because I can communicate with the car but I don't know and not ruling that out. I know this is a lot to read and I've done hours of research to try and find someone with the same problem as me but no luck or even a new thing to start with. I would appreciate any kind of help or suggestions! Would hate to see the car go to the junk yard because of a wiring problem because it runs really good but its not worth spending who knows how much money at mechanic shop. Thank you an have a wonderful day!!

If you have 5 blown fuses, that means 5 individual circuits are shorted to ground. This is not a broken wire or module issue (at least it didn't start that way). All the things you mentioned are NOT powered off the same little orange wire, they just happen to all be orange. The AUX fuse likely isn't part of this issue.

DDM - circuit 640 - terminal B1 of connector 3 of rear fuse block
PDM - circuit 740 - terminal A7 of connector 3 of rear fuse block
RRDM - circuit 840 - terminal E3 of connector 3 of rear fuse block
Radio - circuit 2240 - terminal C5 of connector 2 of rear fuse block
Ignition switch - circuit 540 - terminal E10, E9 & C9 of connector 1 of rear fuse block

Stock radio or aftermarket? Is there ANYTHING aftermarket in this car?

I would start by removing the rear fuse box and looking all the the connections on both sides for any signs of melting. If you don't see anything here, you're going to be doing some serious diagnosing and wire tracing.

_________________
Andrew - owner/operator of Bonnevilles Unlimited

2004 Bonneville GXP | 60k | White Gold Tricoat | custom built supercharged 3800 hot rod | garage queen
1997 Corvette | 55k | Silver Metallic | Z06 wheels | Date-night Hauler/Parts runner
2014 Town & Country Limited | Cashmere Pearl | 95k | Family Hauler
2002 Ram 1500 Quad Cab Sport | Black| 260k | Official Bonneville Hauler

Okay I will start there and look under the rear fuse box. But yes it does have a aftermarket remote start that hasn’t worked in year but I got all that laying down on the drivers flooring, looked for a wiring that my be grounded but did not say anything. Radio is a stock radio. Also sorry about saying looking for a broken wire I meant a break in the rubber coating, making it be grounding somewhere. But much appreciated I will start under the fuse box. Thanks again I will update on progress.

No luck finding any melted wiring or any corrosion under or on top of the fuse box. If you were in my shoes where would you start tracing wires? I’m still trying to figure out what line of wires would feed all 5 of those deals because like I said it’s blowing the fuses whenever I plug them it. Thanks

They are 5 separate circuits, they are all getting fed power from the fuse box. They are likely all having a short at the same spot, so it doesn't really matter which one you go after.

_________________
Andrew - owner/operator of Bonnevilles Unlimited

2004 Bonneville GXP | 60k | White Gold Tricoat | custom built supercharged 3800 hot rod | garage queen
1997 Corvette | 55k | Silver Metallic | Z06 wheels | Date-night Hauler/Parts runner
2014 Town & Country Limited | Cashmere Pearl | 95k | Family Hauler
2002 Ram 1500 Quad Cab Sport | Black| 260k | Official Bonneville Hauler

Is there any way to bypass this problem? I’m finding it almost easier to run new wire to each separate one having the problem because there is so many time to try and track down.

Also want I’m finding hard to understand is that I can have the fuses plugged in that are blowing and they show 11.4 volts, it’s not untill they get plugged in to the module or whatever that they will blow. I have gone threw a lot of wiring already and still nothing.