Ignition switch housing issue

Okay… a few weeks ago my wipers, horn, signals, fan and headlights quit working and with the club's help I diagnosed it as a faulty ignition switch.

The new ignition switch went in without a hitch and I tested the car with about a 5 minute idle session and everything seemed ok. Today I hop in to take a little roadtrip and about 15 minutes into the journey I smell melting plastic and sure enough the DRLs and turn signals are gone again. So I hightail it back home and strip the steering column down again.

Unlike the first time, a wire is now visibly exposed and the insulation has blackened right at the purple and black plastic housing that attachs to the ignition switch. Here's a picture of the housing I'm talking about:



After poking around I see the wire is loose in the harness and then determine that the ignition switch is still working, but the wire is making poor contact. Removing the housing, it's easy to see why it's loose:



Here's the question(s): What is that wire? I can replace the entire housing but what kind of tool is needed to pry those electrical wires out of the harness without destroying everything?

Seems like if I can cut out that oxidized wire and jumper a good piece, then snugly attach it to the post, it should be okay. I'm thinking it worked loose and resistance built up, melting the housing. Maybe getting a new switch wasn't necessary after all…

Thoughts?

You can get a repair wire from the dealer, and replace just the single wire. There are springy wings that hold the wire ends in place. You usually have to insert a small flattened wire (paper clip) on each side, sometimes in slots, sometimes just in openings, to depress the springs towards the center of the opening, then pull out the wire.

DanG144 said:

You can get a repair wire from the dealer, and replace just the single wire. There are springy wings that hold the wire ends in place. You usually have to insert a small flattened wire (paper clip) on each side, sometimes in slots, sometimes just in openings, to depress the springs towards the center of the opening, then pull out the wire.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip, Dan.

Since I don't have a dealer nearby I scrounged up a like-sized piece of wire, Dremel'd out the housing a smidge and used a sturdier clip in its place.

I am hoping this more solid connection will keep this from happening again.