Cabin fuse box location / access

rmp301 said:

Don't feel bad ..... I had the same problem ..... My son crawled under the dash and found it for me, but seriously ............. I need a wrench and flash light to replace a fuse in an emergency? What a load of crap ............. Just as well write these new vehs off when you have a problem with them as you cannot locate a damn thing any longer!:roll:

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Locating it is one thing. Getting at it is quite another. It is a ridiculous place to mount it. I think it may have been designed this way so that some owners will have to take the vehicle back to the dealer and then get charged to have a fuse replaced.

Peter

2011 Explorer ...no radio....Kids running me nuts on vacation

what number is the radio fuse...I am inside the box and have no idea which fuse it is...No manual in vehicle...Help...What number is the fuse that powers the radio??? Thanks, JOhn Vehicle is a 2011 Explorer....Sorry

MFT is Fuse 29

jlbailey56 said:

what number is the radio fuse...I am inside the box and have no idea which fuse it is...No manual in vehicle...Help...What number is the fuse that powers the radio??? Thanks, JOhn Vehicle is a 2011 Explorer....Sorry

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Just disconnect the battery. There is a quick release on the positive terminal.

harlenm said:

Just disconnect the battery. There is a quick release on the positive terminal.

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Disconnecting the battery isn't recommended. When you disconnect the battery the car must relearn idle and shift points. This can take hundreds of miles (and minutes of idle time). Pulling the fuse, or using the delayed reboot app are much better choices.

jlbailey56 said:

what number is the radio fuse...I am inside the box and have no idea which fuse it is...No manual in vehicle...Help...What number is the fuse that powers the radio??? Thanks, JOhn Vehicle is a 2011 Explorer....Sorry

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Welcome to the Forum jlbailey56. :wavey:
The Owner's Guide has a complete list of the fuses, location and what they protect but I guess that doesn't help if you don't have it with you. As 13Sport indicated, disconnecting.connecting the battery is the best thing to do. With so much electronic circuitry/programs on board, many things will lose memory without constant power. Fuse #29 is for the radio if you have Sync. Fuse #9 is for the 4" radio display (without Sync).
It would be helpful if you indicated which model Explorer you have in the left margin.
Good luck.

Peter

FWIW, when the Sync screen went dead on mine and I couldn't find the fuse block in the passenger compartment (if it is by the pedals, why don't they SAY it is by the pedals or below the dash on the firewall?), I pulled the fuse for the dashboard in the engine compartment fuse box. Seemed to do the trick (or else I just got lucky).

peterk9 said:

As 13Sport indicated, disconnecting.connecting the battery is the best thing to do.

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I said it is "not" the best thing to do

13Sport said:

Disconnecting the battery isn't recommended. When you disconnect the battery the car must relearn idle and shift points. This can take hundreds of miles (and minutes of idle time). Pulling the fuse, or using the delayed reboot app are much better choices.

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I've pulled the battery on my lemon probably 10 times over the last year or so, I've never noticed a difference on how the car drove. Besides, he's looking for the fastest method to please his children. I don't have the patience to try and pull a fuse that a human can't reach when a battery disconnect can be done in seconds.

Plus, hundreds of miles to relearn shift points and idling? That's 2 days, what's the big deal.

13Sport said:

I said it is "not" the best thing to do

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Oops. I guess I left out the most important word. My bad.

Peter

Hundreds of miles to Peter is two months!

VinceL said:

Hundreds of miles to Peter is two months!

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Good night Vince.

Peter

Harlenm,
Messing with a battery cable can damage your vehicle and cause damage to circuits and fry components. Maybe that's why you are driving a lemon. I'm sure that if you had mentioned repeated battery cable pulls in your lemon law case you probably wouldn't have won your case. That is not a good practice. Especially on a vehicle with so much software and electronics. Battery cable pulls mess with the on board CPU. As mentioned before. DON'T PERFORM THIS PROCEDURE. DON"T

broken strut said:

Harlenm,
Messing with a battery cable can damage your vehicle and cause damage to circuits and fry components. Maybe that's why you are driving a lemon. I'm sure that if you had mentioned repeated battery cable pulls in your lemon law case you probably wouldn't have won your case. That is not a good practice. Especially on a vehicle with so much software and electronics. Battery cable pulls mess with the on board CPU. As mentioned before. DON'T PERFORM THIS PROCEDURE. DON"T

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Pulling the negative side of a battery cable will not affect the electronics. It can be likened to unplugging your phone from the wall. The recommended procedure by IVT for rebooting when there is a problem is to pull the fuse, or pull the negative side of the battery cable. Your post is a bit dramatic, and slightly false.

13Sport said:

Pulling the negative side of a battery cable will not affect the electronics. It can be likened to unplugging your phone from the wall. The recommended procedure by IVT for rebooting when there is a problem is to pull the fuse, or pull the negative side of the battery cable. Your post is a bit dramatic, and slightly false.

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It would be dramatic and false if I were speaking of the negative side of the battery cable. However, the quote I was refering to in my post was this one.

harlenm said:

Just disconnect the battery. There is a quick release on the positive terminal.

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Hence the drama and correctness of my post.

I do however agree with the negative side. I personally wouldn't do it. But then again, I have all kinds of free time to run back and forth to the dealers. They have excellent coffee and top notch service. I love going to my dealer (sarcasm)

broken strut said:

I
Hence the drama and correctness of my post.

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You're still being dramatic, and slightly false

The reason you disconnect the negative terminal first (or only in this case) is to reduce the chance of bridging the positive and negative poles since you take the chassis out of the equation (negative terminal is attached to the chassis).

There is no difference to the electronics whether you disconnect positive or negative, it's just safer to disconnect the negative to avoid accidentally bridging (and thus shorting and possibly exploding) the battery.

If you were to disconnect, reconnect, disconnect, reconnect in short bursts you could cause bursts of power that might overload electronics, but this isn't what any of the posters were talking about. Everyone "SHOULD" know how to disconnect a battery in a car, it's recommended when leaving the car sit for a long period of time, when modifying anything electrical, when changing lights, etc. You shouldn't persuade people to avoid learning how to maintain a car properly.

Fuse Box on 2013 Explorer Limited

How do you remove plastic pin holding fuse box cover under dash on drivers side of explorer 2013. There is a plastic pin on left side that feels as if it is threaded but will not come out. The cover as two other screws but they will screw out. Surprised Ford put the fuse panel where it is not accessible should one have trouble on road. I have pushed, pried, screwed all to no avail. Can anyone tell me how to remove this cover to get to the fuse box?

Remove the two screws. The plastic push pin on the left pulls out. Its a pain in the ass the first time and will take some elbow grease. After that it just needs to be finagled out.

Where is it actually located?

KarmanExplorer said:

Where is it actually located?

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Unless they have moved it in newer modles, it is under the dash in an area above the parking brake. The fuse box is located just sightly up and to the left of the plug above the yellow sideways 'A' in the picture. And for more free info, the white sticker with the bar code shows your driver's side door code (changed to 0's for the pic).

Peter