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My '95 Explorer is possessed

fulltlt

Member
Joined
June 6, 2003
Messages
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City, State
Batavia, IL
Year, Model & Trim Level
1995 XLT
I have a '95 Explorer that seems to be possessed. The A/C works for 5 minutes or so and then quits. If the 4wd light flashes 5 times and quits the
electric windows won't go up or down. The display on the radio is on sometimes and completely blank at other times. The windshield wipers work ok on full and fast but on intermittent they sometimes stop at random points within their sweep. The headlights will just shut off at random times. Touching the headlight switch will get them to come back on.
 



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Your truck is 16 years old-not possessed.

1-you need to service the AC system and find the leak
2-The 4wd light is telling you something. Possibly a good cleaning of the shif motor and sensor is in order

3-look for a broken wire in the door hinge area of driver door. Inside the rubber boot or up inside the door kick area. I have seen the black wire with blue stripe break often

4-very common for radio display to go out-(not many have the stock radio these days)
5-I would replace the headlight switch
 






My headlights did the same thing with the highbeams on for more than 15 minutes. A new head light switched fixed it.
 






Your truck is 16 years old-not possessed.

1-you need to service the AC system and find the leak
2-The 4wd light is telling you something. Possibly a good cleaning of the shif motor and sensor is in order

3-look for a broken wire in the door hinge area of driver door. Inside the rubber boot or up inside the door kick area. I have seen the black wire with blue stripe break often

4-very common for radio display to go out-(not many have the stock radio these days)
5-I would replace the headlight switch

The A/C must not be leaking because it blows ice cold for 5 minutes and then stops. It does this consistently. I have stuck a thermometer in the vent and it will get down to 45 degrees F. when it's working.

The windows work most of the time but whenever the 4wd light flashes that means no more windows working until some random time later.

The radio display does work most of the time. It just randomly decides not to display on occasion and then again randomly comes back to life. At one point in it's life it would go completely out with no sound or anything. I took the radio out and discovered something loose rattling around inside of it. The loose part I discovered was a penny that some kid must have stuck in through the door on the tape player. After I removed that I haven't had the problem with it going out completely. Now there's only the problem with the display randomly working or not working.

Ever hear of the windshield wipers stopping at random points within their sweep only when in the intermittent positions. It gives new meaning to intermittent wipers.

It was growling like a demon until I replaced the left front wheel hub and wheel bearing this past weekend.
 






The A/C must not be leaking because it blows ice cold for 5 minutes and then stops. It does this consistently. I have stuck a thermometer in the vent and it will get down to 45 degrees F. when it's working.

The windows work most of the time but whenever the 4wd light flashes that means no more windows working until some random time later.


The radio display does work most of the time. It just randomly decides not to display on occasion and then again randomly comes back to life. At one point in it's life it would go completely out with no sound or anything. I took the radio out and discovered something loose rattling around inside of it. The loose part I discovered was a penny that some kid must have stuck in through the door on the tape player. After I removed that I haven't had the problem with it going out completely. Now there's only the problem with the display randomly working or not working.

Ever hear of the windshield wipers stopping at random points within their sweep only when in the intermittent positions. It gives new meaning to intermittent wipers.

It was growling like a demon until I replaced the left front wheel hub and wheel bearing this past weekend.

I have that issue with my 96 XLT 4.0. I have read here that the likely cause is the GEM is faulty. What is the GEM, you ask? I did, and I got cryptic replies- its a 'generic electronic module' that basically interfaces with all of the electronic systems in the vehicle. It is behind the radio in the dash. It has all kinds of weird issues that it is known for. I think it can be reprogrammed?

Never got any conclusive answers. Good luck, at least my AC works, so I dont have to worry about keeping my windows up all the time.
 






I have that issue with my 96 XLT 4.0. I have read here that the likely cause is the GEM is faulty. What is the GEM, you ask? I did, and I got cryptic replies- its a 'generic electronic module' that basically interfaces with all of the electronic systems in the vehicle. It is behind the radio in the dash. It has all kinds of weird issues that it is known for. I think it can be reprogrammed?

Never got any conclusive answers. Good luck, at least my AC works, so I dont have to worry about keeping my windows up all the time.


I got in the car after a hot day at work last week. The A/C wouldn't work AND the windows wouldn't go down. That was no fun driving home that day. The 4wd lights flashed at me as if saying "nah nah na nah nah". I felt like a dog locked in a car in the supermarket parking lot in August with the windows rolled all the way up. I went over a railroad crossing about half way home and the windows started to work again. What a relief that was.
 






Fortunately for me my AC has always worked. Windows, not so much. Seems to be that hot days are the culprit to keeping the windows inoperable, yet even when running with the AC on for a while and cooling the truck nicely, they still wont work. Very odd, but I just read in another random thread that disconnecting the negative battery cable for a good 20 minutes or so will 'reboot' the trucks computer. About to go out and do that right now.
 






Well, I cant test anything out because I cant drive the truck for now. In the midst of putting a tensioner pulley on and waiting for my ride to show up. Anyhow, I did disconnect the battery, and while I was at it I removed the dash and looked behind the radio. There were 3 items that could have possibly been this elusive "gem", but the only one that made sense was on the left as you look into the opening where the radio fits. About 7 or 8 inches long, maybe an inch thick, about 3 inches wide, and a whole lot of wires in and out of it :) The other two items of interest just didnt seem to have nearly enough wiring leading to them. Now that Ive found it, I just need to figure out what to do with it to make it not broken anymore.
 






This black box is the GEM.

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The GEM answer is just about right....I hate to price a new one from the dealership-
 






If you get a used one from the scrapper, make sure the part numbers are the same- they're incredibly sensitive to options/function.
 






Joe's right about the part #'s. There is a little flexibility there though. The last couple of letters in the part # are a date code indicating when they were made in the production run, so they may be different. As long as it comes from the same year and power train you're golden. An example being XL5T-14B205-EC(99 Ranger). As long as the X***-****** match you're good, the last 2 aren't critical, however you should TRY to match the whole # as there have been instances of options changing mid year.
 






i had the exact same problem except my wipers didnt work at all, also check to see if your dome light and transmission range sensor are working, on my truck i took out the gem and tested pin #11, its the white wire with yellow stripe on the bottom plug on the gem on mine and it wasnt gettin power, a new gem is $330 as i almost ordered one from ford,

check fuse #25

you said you hit a bump and it started workin so it could be a loose connection somewhere, the gem is very sensitive to voltage changes also.

there is also a relay bank up by the right side of the steering shaft under the dash for the wiper park relay

just talking out of my experience a month ago, good luck
 






my 98 ranger is also possessed, it has stuff go wrong that ive stumped my mechanic multiple times

right now i just got the a/c charged and the a/c compressor runs with the vent control switch on , off, top vent and floor vent, and the compressor clutch disengages on a/c and defrost lol
 






one more thing

One more thing I forgot to mention. The air bag warning light flashes a few times and then stays on most of the time.

The windshield wipers always work in full and fast mode. They only intermittently stop and start at random points within their sweep when the control is in any of the intermittent positions.

Oh, and one more thing that's not electrical related. There is always air blowing from behind on my left elbow when I'm driving and the car is in motion. The door is closed tight and the weatherstripping is good. It's ok in the summer when the A/C decides not to work at the same time it decides to not let the windows open. In the winter it gets real cold on my left elbow.
 






I'm still leaning towards a GEM issue. I swapped my GEM once with one that was only 1 year off and my truck acted like it was posessed as well. The wipers were crazy and all kinds of other electrical gremlins were happening. On the air coming from the door, I'll bet if you pull the interior door panel you'll find the plastic cover is gone or ripped.
 






I went out at lunch time. The windows went down and up on my way to the restaurant. The radio display was dark the whole trip.
When I got my food and got back in the car the windows would not go down. Now
the "O/D off" light is blinking on and off. I never touched "O/D" switch.
 






same thing happened to me, after i got the gem working the od off light started flashing and thats where i am right now and as for the air coming in, my truck has no weather gaurd sheet behing the panel cuz the glue gave way and havent got around to it yet

defenitely is a gem module though, the od light is probably on on yours because the gem controls the digital transmission range sensor as well as the t case functions

the air bag light flashing shouldnt be the gem as it is a seperate module
 






o/d light flashing

Did you ever get the o/d light to quit flashing. Mine is doing it all the time now.

I get a thump in the drive train it seems every time I slow down as it goes down past 15 mph.
 



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sounds like you got some wires shorting out, check all the wires for shorts first.
 






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