electrical nightmare??

[Mommystrucky]

ok i took my 96 xlt in to get looked at on friday. cottman trans had this free scan and check so i figured i would do it because i have been getting some horrific mileage and it does downshift hard at times. luckily they found nothing wrong with the tranny whatsoever but....they found a code for the a/c and a whole bunch of other stuff.
the a/c stopped working a few weeks ago. i was driving with it on (hot day) and suddenly it smelled funny and got warm, i turned it off and back on and after a min it started to get cold again but then came out hot. hasnt worked since. we replaced the relay and that didnt seem to do anything. so here is what the mechanic wrote down that happened friday....

koeo or koer dtc p1460 indicated wide open throttle. a/c was off (wac) circuit fault or that a/c was on during self-test. a/c was not on during test.
koeo- no codes
koer- no codes
momory- p1460 wot a/c cutout ckt fault

that was before the test drive...during the drive more codes...here is what he wrote down

gem module codes
b1302 acc delay relay coil ckt fault
b1352 ign key in ckt fault
memory codes gem
b1323 door ajar lamp ckt fault
b1434 wiper speed relay ckt fault
b1428 safety belt lamp ckt fault
b1352 ign key in ckt fault
he also said that there is definate decreased power. i guess i dont really notice because i am used to it but i do notice sluggishness at times. also ever since the a/c stopped working whenever i turn on the heat or defroster or anything the rpm starts bouncing and the motor keeps reving up and down until i turn it back to off.

Does anyone have a clue what this means??? he said he had no clue what to do with any of it. theyre a trans shop so he recommended someone to me. i called and he wants to run a complete diagnostic $90. he said since i replaced the neg terminal a few months back and didnt clear the computer when hooking the battery back up it might have some of the codes because of that. so he wants to clear it and see if they come back. i dont know what to do. i dont want to have to start car shopping.

 

[exploded99]

There is a switch to cut off the air conditioning compressor at or near wide open throttle. After you back off the gas pedal, the switch lets the a/c compressor turn back on. This error code is the cause of your a/c and engine misbehavior, so I would get it addressed first. Most likely cause is the switch itself.

The other codes are a lot of error codes that involve the circuits that the gem module controls. The gem is behind the radio in the dash. I think with this many error codes involving the gem all at once that the gem module itself is probably bad. But you will want to verify that.

If it were me, I would probably get a used gem from a junkyard rather than buy a new one. They do not fail often at all. Just match up the part #'s if you go that route.

The mommys trucky i.d. leads me to believe the mommy thing is kind of big - so I'm guessing that when you typed MOMory instead of memory in your message, it was on purpose, right? Or did your Freudian keyboard slip?

 

[Mommystrucky]

The mommys trucky i.d. leads me to believe the mommy thing is kind of big - so I'm guessing that when you typed MOMory instead of memory in your message, it was on purpose, right? Or did your Freudian keyboard slip?[/QUOTE]

no not at all. my son was always saying daddys trucky and mommys trucky at the time that i signed up, so yes that was a oops i didnt even see it till you pointed it out.

thanks for the info though. ill definately look into that. and i will keep it in mind when the shop tells me it will cost like a million dollars or so to fix. dont like taking my vehicles anywhere, been ripped off before.

 

[briwayjones]

Before you take it back in to a shop to have it checked. I would unhook the negative battery terminal for 10 minutes to reset the computer. Take it to a Autozone, they do free code scanning and get it scanned. And see how many of the codes it takes care of. That way you at least know what to expect.

 

[Mommystrucky]

i wish i had an autozone around here. all there we have is pep boys and advanced auto. and neither of them do that for you. i dont have a scanner...but getting one is sounding like a good idea.
thanks

 

[exploded99]

I just got a little kick out of the mommy thing -

Briwayjones is suggesting to disconnect the battery, which clears the codes from memory, and then see if they return. Occasionally codes for electrical things gets set for no real good reason - kind of a freak occurrence. That might be a good idea to try.

If you want ideas to help with sluggish performance there are some pretty standard things to try on explorers - just yell.