Check engine light not wired, 97 Mountaineer

[bronchole]

I went to get the new to me 1997 Mountaineer smogged here in Southern California. The smog tech was really nice and didn't charge me to tell me that he couldn't smog the vehicle because the check engine light didn't illuminate when the ignition switch turned to the run position. He checked to make sure there were no codes on the computer, it was clear. He told me to check to make sure the bulb wasn't blown and trace down the wireing back thru the harness if the bulb was OK.

So I rip out the dash (that's a pretty good project in itself) and discover that there is no bulb in the "check engine" hole on the gauge cluster. After some trouble shooting and moving bulbs around on the gauge cluster I moved on to tracing down the wireing.

Here is where it gets interesting. It appears that this wire harness does not have a wire to the mating connection point on the gauge cluster for the "check Engine" light!

Now what? I guess I am going to go back to the smog shop and explain this to them and see WTF. Hopefully this is some sort of conversion year thing where it doesn't need a CEL.

Anyone else have any input on this?

Dan

 

[budwich]

My guess is someone replaced the instrument panel board with one from another year.

PS. After a quick check, my guess needs updating.... more than likely the wiring was replaced, possibly because of an engine replacement... maybe

 

[bronchole]

Hmmm, so what you are saying is that there is a particular application that has a Ford wire harness that does not have a CEL wire? There would need to be an application like that for the wire harness to come from.

I'm going to look thru my schematics tonight and see if I can figure this out.

Anyone else out there have a 1997 Mountaineer that they are sure has a CEL?

 

[Joe Dirt]

When looking at the gauge faces, where exactly is the CEL physically located on the cluster in your truck?

 

[bronchole]

Ding ding ding, we have a winner!

Your question got me to thinking. One of the PO's put in flaming gauge backs on the instrument cluster. The flaming gauge backs have the CEL located on the right cluster just to the left of the voltage gauge. Luckily for me the original gauge faces were in the pile-o-parts that I got with it. When I looked for where the CEL was on the original faces I found that it is on the left cluster and is near the bottom of the temp gauge. Unfortunatly it is marked "fuel cap".

I'll see if the smog guy will let that slide. He seems pretty cool so I am hopeful.

 

[budwich]

Hmmm, so what you are saying is that there is a particular application that has a Ford wire harness that does not have a CEL wire? There would need to be an application like that for the wire harness to come from.

I'm going to look thru my schematics tonight and see if I can figure this out.

Anyone else out there have a 1997 Mountaineer that they are sure has a CEL?

No I didn't mean to say anything like that. I think it was / is illegal for ford to sell a vehicle that doesn't have a working indicator... at least in N.A. Having said that, there maybe some differences in wiring. IF you look at schematics for that year (assuming on-line stuff is accurate), two connector "options" (options isn't the right term... "engineering choice") were identified BUT both have the same wiring identified for that pin. HOWEVER, IF you choose to look at say a 99 explorer wiring, again two wiring "cablings" are identified BUT the pins (and cabling) are NOT wired the same and hence the "guess". Maybe I don't "read schematics so good"....

update: I see that you have indicated that the gages were changed... okee doke.

 

[bronchole]

All good, now I just got to see if i have to change the gauge faces back in order to pass CA smog

 

[Joe Dirt]

Cha ching!

 

[Turdle]

Not a fan of the flames, but if you like them is there a way to move the cel wire to the other socket?

 

[budwich]

just as you can "change" your "face", you can change the wiring..... IF the "new fuel cap" is actually the "CEL"... then just run a jumper on the board from that "run" to the "run" for where you want the "CEL" to be.

 

[bronchole]

I went and talked to the smog tech at lunch and was bummed that he said that I needed to get the correct "check engine" light to illuminate. I figured that I would have to put the original gauge faces back on.

I didn't even think about just moving the pin over from the current position to the position that would drive the correct light on the flaming gauge face.

Thanks for the thought. I probably would have thought about it at some point, but I'm glad you guys made sure that was before I went thru the trouble of changeing the faces. I am not really a big fan of the flaming gauge faces, but my wife and son love them and I can tolerate them. They are allot less anoying than I thought they would be.

So I will hit the JY this weekend to get a replacement gear indicator cable (one of the PO's broke the one that is in there likely when he did the flaming gauge face) and swap the wire over this weekend. Then I will finally get to take it in for smog and see if it passes the pipe!

 

[bobflood]

Your "flame" guage faces must have come out of a '96 or older vehicle. Per the Explorer Owner's Manuals, in '96 the check engine light was on the right side of the cluster. It was moved to the left side of the cluster (your "original" faces) in '97. The '97 manual doesn't show any indicator light on the panel where your "flame face" check engine indicator is; hopefully there is still something back there to put an indicator bulb tied to the "check engine" wire. Good luck and please post final resolution.

 

[bronchole]

Yes, there is a socket for the CEL light behind the flaming CEL location. I even put a bulb in it and hooked up 12V to it to make sure that there was not a blown trace on the instrument cluster befor I discovered the real problem. The socket is even labled something like "check engine", but I don't remember.

Given what you have pointed out I suspect that these gauge faces are for the 96 and older applications.

I am continually amazed at the power of the knowledge pool that forums like this create.

 

[bobflood]

Based on wiring diagrams, it looks like you will be looking for a Pink/Lt Green wire for the check engine indicator (AKA the "Malfunction Indicator Light" or "MIL") in position "9" in the wiring harness connector. It looks to me like you might be able to just move the wire from slot 9 in the 12 pin connector it's in to slot 9 in the 10 pin connector. Not sure about this, however, because I don't know if a corresponding change was made in the IP backplane. Good luck!!

 

[bronchole]

It shouldn't be too hard to trace down now tha tI know where the real CEL is. I will just trace it back to the coresponding connector and move it over to the flaming CEL pin location which is currenlty unoccupied. The biggest posible issue I may have is if the current CEL is in one of the other connectors and the flaming CEL connector is not compatable with the pins. I plan on grabbing a couple "spare" pins at the JY while I am there getting my gear shift indicator cable.

 

[Turdle]

Hillbilly fix time. Cut out the "check engine" part of original overlay.

Cut out the gas cap lettering using the check engine cut out as a guide, install the previously cut out check engine overlay in the new space, place clear shipping tape over it--done.

 

[bronchole]

The Mounty passed smog today. What I did to fix this "problem" was to get another connector from the junk yard with a good chunck of wire on it. I pulled the pin with the pink/green wire on it out of the connector and snapped in the empty hole that lights the currentl location for the check engine light. Then I splaiced it in to the wire that drives the old check engine light location so now both my check engine light and my Fuel Cap light come on every time the CEL is supposed to come on.

Thanks for the input guys!

Dan