2000 AWD Xploder from Turbo back to NA

[willzilla]

Any luck getting the door open?

Didn't get a chance to.. Worked on my suspension upgrade on the Camaro and did a bunch of yard work, lol. Hopefully will poke at the Xploder tomorrow or the next day though Used it a bunch today hauling donation stuff around... the new iac got it running nice

 

[willzilla]

Of course now its raining :-/ lol.

 

[Turdle]

If you use the lock unlock knob back and forth it might get you a one shot at the outer rear handle. Good luck.

 

[willzilla]

If you use the lock unlock knob back and forth it might get you a one shot at the outer rear handle. Good luck.

I guess we shall see (once the weather complies)

 

[willzilla]

Finally got some nice weather.. I was able to yank on the inside and outside door handles and get thr door open, woo! Pulled off the door panel and I can pull the door lock up and down but it has a good amount of resistance. If I push the door lock down to lock the door and pull inside handle it doesn't unlock and open the door. If I hit unlock button on driver door switch or key fob the lock will twitch a bit but not unlock. Door lock actuator bad?

 

[donalds]

I believe you have a broken spring inside the door latch mechanism However If you use the search function and type in helper spring mod you'll find a fix

 

[CDW6212R]

That high resistance to movement manually inside the door points to the lock actuator. All lock actuators are suspect like that when they get this old, it would be ideal to replace all of them if they are used regularly.

I had that happen with one of my Mark VII's twice, same car, both doors. One I could get the door open from the inside handle, the other side was locked up and wouldn't open almost ever. I took the door panels off and worked on the linkages, lubricating etc. Replacing the actuators fixed both doors, and both had the rubber covers torn off of them. Newer actuators seem to not have that moisture problem, my car had damaged window felts(the rubber along the glass was cracked badly). Those were Fox chassis cars, same actuators, so the rubber over was needed greatly.

Try to use a 1/4" rivet to reattach the new actuators, or the harder way, pry the mount arms open instead of drilling out the rivet. I bought the black rivets and the big rivet gun, so I have swapped many of the actuators of my old Fords.

 

[willzilla]

I'll take a closer look today.. Got dark when I got around to it last night and didn't get a chance to investigate further.

 

[willzilla]

Finally got a chance to take a look at the Xploder a little more today... Installed some new brake lights (one burned out at some point in the past) and one of my fog lights was burned out. Swapped in some new yellow LED fog lights and the passenger side lights right up.. driver side, nope. Swapped the old good regular fog light bulb that was on the passenger side over to the driver side.. lights up. Ok, figured I got 1 defective new LED fog light and picked up another 2 pack. Both installed on drivers side and neither lights up... swap the one that works on the passenger side over to drivers side.. does not light up.

So.. super weird, LED fog light bulbs work fine on the passenger side as does regular bulbs.. regular bulbs work fine on drivers side but the same LED lights do not. Swapped the bulb holder that the bulbs plug into and same result (no change). Tested voltages and the driver side reads 11.3v and the passenger side reads 10.8v, these are with the engine off but power on and fog light switch on.

Anyone have a clue why I would get a difference of half a volt between the passenger side and driver side and why the higher driver side ignites a regular bulb but not the LED?

Circling back to the back driver side door... I see no spring. I think spring is something just on the driver side front door? I remember replacing the spring back in the day on the driver side and resolving an issue I had... but the rear doors I see no spring or anything like that. I can force the door lock/unlock pull switch up and down to unlock and lock the door but it takes a good amount of effort. Hitting the unlock/lock button on keyfob and front switch and it barely moves. Door lock actuator seems pretty noisy.

Also, between this Xploder, I've been working on upgrading my ZL1 suspension with some BMR parts.. about half done so far...

 

[CDW6212R]

The only springs in the door latch stuff is the two tiny ones that keep the handle from flopping. The latch has some internally, but the latch won't create that large resistance to the door handle or lock parts. The actuator becomes virtually locked up, and then hardly moves, right before it completely locks up. If you get into the door panel, disconnect the actuator immediately. Then you will see how freely the lock mechanism works without the resistance of an actuator.

 

[willzilla]

The only springs in the door latch stuff is the two tiny ones that keep the handle from flopping. The latch has some internally, but the latch won't create that large resistance to the door handle or lock parts. The actuator becomes virtually locked up, and then hardly moves, right before it completely locks up. If you get into the door panel, disconnect the actuator immediately. Then you will see how freely the lock mechanism works without the resistance of an actuator.

Ok, cool, yeah, I didn't notice the same setup like I did when I fixed my driver's side door with a decent sized spring.. I remember I replaced it with some random carb spring or something I had laying around and it's been working great for like 10 years now

I'll work on the door some more tomorrow and unplug the actuator and see how it performs.

 

[willzilla]

Unplugged actuator and locked door and closed it and now it won't let me pull the lock back up... lol Almost like it's jammed in place. Will tinker more later but thinking I'll need to replace actuator.

Any idea on the wonkiness with my fog lights anyone? Tested voltages and the driver side fog light harness reads11.3v and the passenger side reads 10.8v, these are with the engine off but power on and fog light switch on. New LED fog bulb lights up perfect on passenger side but does not on the driver side. Using a traditional style bulb and it lights up on both sides, lol. Driver's side voltage for whatever reason is 0.5v higher than the passenger side but I wouldn't think that would cause the LED to not light up as it has an operating voltage range of 9v to 32v.

Is there some kind of logic or whatever in the electrical system that causes issues with one side versus the other side when it comes to fog lights?

 

[CDW6212R]

Try replacing the fog light relay, I found mine bad one day, the fog lights on with the key out. That's below the air cleaner low and sees a lot of moisture. I think the age and moisture killed my relay. Some parts at this age of 26 years are going to be regular things to replace. I began buying some extra OEM relays many years ago, right after that one died.

 

[willzilla]

Try replacing the fog light relay, I found mine bad one day, the fog lights on with the key out. That's below the air cleaner low and sees a lot of moisture. I think the age and moisture killed my relay. Some parts at this age of 26 years are going to be regular things to replace. I began buying some extra OEM relays many years ago, right after that one died.

Ahhh.. I didn't even think of the relay. It looks like this should be the correct relay, https://amzn.to/4gxbYfW. It looks like, from this page https://fuse-box.info/ford/ford-explorer-1996-2001-fuses-and-relay, that the fog lights are relay 4 in the engine compartment power distro box.

 

[CDW6212R]

Fortunately these Fords had only two relay sizes, the large square type or the half of that rectangular. You can swap any around that match in size. If you have any new relays or buy some, place them in critical circuits first, like the fuel pump or EEC positions. I used to swap them(swipe them) from my other 90's Fords as needed. But now given how old all of them are, I've been trying to find time to buy new, and hope to gather enough to replace all of them in one vehicle at a time. My projects have not really gotten along very far, but maybe some day that will still be a wise plan.

 

[willzilla]

Fortunately these Fords had only two relay sizes, the large square type or the half of that rectangular. You can swap any around that match in size. If you have any new relays or buy some, place them in critical circuits first, like the fuel pump or EEC positions. I used to swap them(swipe them) from my other 90's Fords as needed. But now given how old all of them are, I've been trying to find time to buy new, and hope to gather enough to replace all of them in one vehicle at a time. My projects have not really gotten along very far, but maybe some day that will still be a wise plan.

Yeah, probably a good idea to stock up on these items, amongst a lot of others, lol.

I still need to repair or find a replacement for my interior trim plastic piece above the driver side door. Stupid clip snapped off a few weeks ago :-/

 

[willzilla]

Ordered a new relay as well as a new door lock actuator. Relay should be here sometime today and the actuator in about a week

 

[willzilla]

Ok, maybe I confused myself but... I cannot find the fog light "relay"... I'm looking at the diagrams I find and I see a fog light fuse but not a relay. I had misread the labels and thought #4 was indicating relay 4 but it looks like fuse 4. I'm looking at the engine fuse box on this page, Fuse Box Diagram Ford Explorer (1996-2001). What am I missing? Lol.

 

[CDW6212R]

The fog light relay is under the air cleaner, it's in a short relay box hanging from the inside edge of the inner fender. I'm not sure if it can be reached from below, while in place. I removed my air cleaner, the entire assembly, it pulls out of the grommets that are in the inner fender holding it. The you can easily see the auxiliary relay box below there, and get into it.

 

[willzilla]

The fog light relay is under the air cleaner, it's in a short relay box hanging from the inside edge of the inner fender. I'm not sure if it can be reached from below, while in place. I removed my air cleaner, the entire assembly, it pulls out of the grommets that are in the inner fender holding it. The you can easily see the auxiliary relay box below there, and get into it.

Oooooo... Ok, oops, lol. I'll need to look around for that.. I haven't had an OEM air cleaner in forever if when you say air cleaner you are referring to the intake air filter or whatever and not like a cabin filter So, I'll need to look around what sounds like the passenger inside edge inner fender? I have a transformed and mutated old MAC cold air intake setup where my old air box used to be.