Backup lights keep blowing fuses.

[hoorawflyguy]

Fixed my problem! 2002 ford explorer sport trac 4x4

 

[10pound]

To each and every one of you...THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH! I truly appreciate your sharing this information, it was enormously helpful. Obviously, I had the same issue with my wife's 01 Explorer Sport............but now its fixed! Thanks again, have a great year.

 

[lsiemon]

Thanks

Thanks to all the posters, following forums like this saves me a lot of money, and that is even more important lately. Thanks again for the help.

 

[Ricky B]

IT'S FIXED!

THE PROBLEM

THE FIX

Alright Kidz, kinda having the same problem on the Daughter's '97 Explorer. Fuse #26 went out a while ago. Replaced it yesterday and O/D light worked again-----for about 10 miles. Then it went out. Replaced it again this morning, started truck in drive way, hit O/D switch and the light worked. Hit the rear defroster switch, light stayed on. Went thru all the gears (while parked) and the light stayed on. Turned the steering wheel lock to lock a few times, light stayed on. Then I hit the headlight dial switch....O/D light goes off in both modes (parking lights & headlights). Turn the dial to OFF and the O/D light comes back on. Hmmmmm. Any ideas?

And in the picture above, is that the steering wheel cover that I need to remove to get to that wire? Kinda hard to tell.....and that second huge pic you posted doesn't tell me much.....

Thanx in advance,

RB

 

[Ricky B]

Ok, was able to separate the two steering column collars and found the grey wire pictured above. I've got no fraying or worn spots on it anywhere. Then I started the truck and hit the O/D button to get that light on. I then wiggled & jiggled every wire I could get my hands on----at both the steering column area and underneath the wheel behind the larger access panel. Couldn't get the O/D light to go off (or short the fuse) no matter what I did, which tells me I've got no bare wire(s) anywhere there that's grounding out. But then I hit the headlight switch again and the O/D light still goes out in either Parking Lights or Headlights position.

Thoughts? I'm scratching my head trying to figure out how the two are inter related........

 

[stevecarter]

My thanks too

I want to add my thanks for this thread, it fixed my problem too.
The wire out of the shifter, right at the top of the column was bare and shorting.

Let there be (reverse) light - and there was - and it was good.

 

[Empee755]

You have to take the cover off of the steering column. There are some phillips screws on the underside of it. You will also have to unscrew the tilt wheel bar. After the screws are out it is still clipped together a little, but should be able to be pulled apart. There is only one wire that runs into the shifter stock so it's easy to find once the cover is off.

After two years, that finally fixed my problem, a little electrical tape, a small piece of straw, spliced the long way to make a good insulator and now I got, OD, back up lights and automatic locks. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!

 

[FLea58]

Having the same issue on my 01 Sport! Now to confirm by taking it apart, Thanks for the Thread to save me from crawling around underneath the truck!

 

[Ford Exp. 2002]

Fixed the Backup lights and O/D

Thank you guys so much.
I have had several auto shops trace the electrical problem that kept blowing the fuse to the backup lights.
They had no idea. So I have been replacing fuses every few weeks.

I found the fix you guys posted and the photos, (thank you) and found the exposed wire right where it is seen in the photo.
A little black tape and 15 min later it is fixed. (fingers crossed)
The O/D light switches on and off and the Backup lights work.

You guys are great.

 

[muddy888]

2001 Explorer Sport Trac, backup light fuse (27) will hold for a day or two then blow, backup lights, auto door locks and OD quit working when blown. Put up with this for a few years now. Last night I thought I found my problem but after reading this thread I am not sure, I will check the wiring in the column shifter.

I though it worth mentioning last night I started tracing the wiring harness from the passenger side tail light down across to the drivers side, then where it routes to the front of the truck I found the approximately 1/2" harness jammed between a vertical plate and a horizontal plate in the chassis just above the back of the spare. There is about a 1.5 inch hole in the horizontal plate where I can see the vertical plate and the cable is half into the edge of the hole. I can feel it, its wedged really tight, seems like if I could move it to center in the hole it could snake around the vertical plate. I really can't get to it or budge it much, its pretty high up in the frame, class 4 hitch receiver in the way, etc, seems like I would have to do a lot of work to get to this. Just thinking 15 years of vibration on a pinched cable cannot be good. Terrible design to route like this. I wonder if there is a hole in the vertical plate and the factory miss-routed.

In any case I will check the cable in the steering column tonight and post an update. Not sure how to post the pic I will check out the faq's. Looks like I need to upload to a website and cannot directly attach.

 

[whou4]

muddy888,

Make sure you look closely at the cable in the steering column, you wouldn't believe how small the hole in the wire's heat shrink can be to cause the problem...

Good Luck,

Dave

 

[muddy888]

muddy888,

Make sure you look closely at the cable in the steering column, you wouldn't believe how small the hole in the wire's heat shrink can be to cause the problem...

Good Luck,

Dave

Yes very true, I went at this the hard way because I thought I needed to get to the bottom of the column, took apart a lot of stuff I didn't need to disassemble

In any case when I saw the cable my first thought was this looks fine, I wiped the grease off with my fingers and sure enough felt the rough spot and I could see exposed strands although it is quite a small nick in the cable. Couldn't find any small loom so I rubber tapped it up real good. Will be many more years before this wears through again.

Thanks much Dave and all!!!