nav9908
New Member
- Joined
- June 1, 2007
- Messages
- 1
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- Ramstein AB
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1997 XLT
A week ago after a 30 min trip, my explorer would not restart after a short stop. When I turned the key, all I would get is a click. After about 15 tries it started absolutely fine. For the next week, I had absolutely no problems starting it.
Today, it would not start again. However the problem manifested itself slightly differently. When I opened the car, absolutely nothing was powered. I tried the dome lights, head lights, etc. After a slight jiggling of the battery cables which were tight all of the lights in the car repowered. When I tried to start it, as soon as I switched from the auxillary position to the start position, all power to the car was lost again.
After repeating the process several times of jiggling the cable and regaining power, I had slightly different results. Sometimes when I turned the key, it would click but wouldn't start. Other times it did as I described previously (complete loss of electricity).
One other possible trouble shooting item that I observed occured yesterday. For a brief second, I saw a wisp of smoke come from the top of the steering column near the hazzard lights button when I turned the left turn signal on.
The battery is fully charged (checked) and the battery cables are clean and tight.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated since I'm overseas and good Ford mechanics are hard to find. Additionally, I'm deploying overseas and need an answer soon.
Thanks
Today, it would not start again. However the problem manifested itself slightly differently. When I opened the car, absolutely nothing was powered. I tried the dome lights, head lights, etc. After a slight jiggling of the battery cables which were tight all of the lights in the car repowered. When I tried to start it, as soon as I switched from the auxillary position to the start position, all power to the car was lost again.
After repeating the process several times of jiggling the cable and regaining power, I had slightly different results. Sometimes when I turned the key, it would click but wouldn't start. Other times it did as I described previously (complete loss of electricity).
One other possible trouble shooting item that I observed occured yesterday. For a brief second, I saw a wisp of smoke come from the top of the steering column near the hazzard lights button when I turned the left turn signal on.
The battery is fully charged (checked) and the battery cables are clean and tight.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated since I'm overseas and good Ford mechanics are hard to find. Additionally, I'm deploying overseas and need an answer soon.
Thanks
