HELP! Alaska Winter = MAJOR electircal glitches! I'm baffled!

[9646gt]

First off...the vehicle was fine as far as I remember during the summer...I am stationed in Fairbanks,Alaska right now and this is the vehicles second winter here. I don't remember having any major issues last year with the vehicle being parked inside over night...however this year the new car is being garaged over the winter so the Explorer is outside all the time (2003 Explorer limited 4.6l ) where the temps can become as low as 60 degrees below zero at the most extreme times but lately the coldest it has seen was -25 or so. I should note that I have battery heaters oil pan heater and block heater all installed and plan to install a tranny heater this weekend. Now I am having CRAZY electrical issues.

My cruise control will not turn on sometimes and functions perfect other times.

I went to get out of the car a few times and the radio power staye don where it normally turns off when you open the door. It stayed on even after opening and closing all doors but the dome light and door ajar indications were gone.

My ABS and Brake indicator lights are staying on at about 15mph and faster and alot of times will radomly go away as I start to brake once I get down to about 15mph or slower then will come back on and sometimes even alternate from both lights to just the ABS light. I need abs with the horrible road conditions!

My wife tried to goto town tonight and said the seat would not move back when ignition was turned off then I guess it started going back and kept going till it made a clicking noise a few times or something.

My rear driver side window will randomly not respond up or down

My from pass side window switch lights went out and the witch no longer functions but the door lock part does. The window works fine from the driver side switch.

I can't think of anything else right this second but I am sure there is more. Where do I start?!? There has been no check engine light on. I CAN'T take it to the dealer here as there is only one and it's a HUGE monopoly.

Please help me out guys I am so affraid of becoming stranded where it can be a life or death situation in a place like this!

 

[helmsa]

First off...the vehicle was fine as far as I remember during the summer...I am stationed in Fairbanks,Alaska right now and this is the vehicles second winter here. I don't remember having any major issues last year with the vehicle being parked inside over night...however this year the new car is being garaged over the winter so the Explorer is outside all the time (2003 Explorer limited 4.6l ) where the temps can become as low as 60 degrees below zero at the most extreme times but lately the coldest it has seen was -25 or so. I should note that I have battery heaters oil pan heater and block heater all installed and plan to install a tranny heater this weekend. Now I am having CRAZY electrical issues.

My cruise control will not turn on sometimes and functions perfect other times.

I went to get out of the car a few times and the radio power staye don where it normally turns off when you open the door. It stayed on even after opening and closing all doors but the dome light and door ajar indications were gone.

My ABS and Brake indicator lights are staying on at about 15mph and faster and alot of times will radomly go away as I start to brake once I get down to about 15mph or slower then will come back on and sometimes even alternate from both lights to just the ABS light. I need abs with the horrible road conditions!

My wife tried to goto town tonight and said the seat would not move back when ignition was turned off then I guess it started going back and kept going till it made a clicking noise a few times or something.

My rear driver side window will randomly not respond up or down

My from pass side window switch lights went out and the witch no longer functions but the door lock part does. The window works fine from the driver side switch.

I can't think of anything else right this second but I am sure there is more. Where do I start?!? There has been no check engine light on. I CAN'T take it to the dealer here as there is only one and it's a HUGE monopoly.

Please help me out guys I am so affraid of becoming stranded where it can be a life or death situation in a place like this!

First of all, thank you for your service. I just recently joined the Air National Guard, Security Forces down here in Oregon.

Secondly, as to the electrical issues, there isn't much that I can speak to, but I did have a similar issue with my cruise control. This problem is partially electrical and partially an issue with the brake system. The brake light switch (located on the master cylinder I believe) sticks or has some sort of failure...my brake lights would remain on sometimes, but I only knew when it happened if I was parked...Several times this translated into my cruise control being non-responsive when driving down the freeway which I can only attribute to the system sensing I was applying the brakes while the switch was stuck.

Now I never did anything with it, and haven't had a problem in about 4 months.

 

[gsmaclean]

It seems to me from reading here for the last few months, that every time someone has a 2003 with sudden, crazy, unrelated electrical problems, it's ALWAYS the battery. The electronics in the Gen 3 Explorers seem to be very sensitive to a battery that is dying - it will have enough juice to start and run the truck, but crazy things start happening. In most of the cases I've read here, the owner replaced the battery with new, and it fixed all the problems.

The fact that you're in a very cold climate, which will exacerbate battery problems, makes me think this could be your problem even more.

 

[helmsa]

It seems to me from reading here for the last few months, that every time someone has a 2003 with sudden, crazy, unrelated electrical problems, it's ALWAYS the battery. The electronics in the Gen 3 Explorers seem to be very sensitive to a battery that is dying - it will have enough juice to start and run the truck, but crazy things start happening. In most of the cases I've read here, the owner replaced the battery with new, and it fixed all the problems.

The fact that you're in a very cold climate, which will exacerbate battery problems, makes me think this could be your problem even more.

I'm not aware of too many issues that have resulted around a low/dead battery. The only one that I know of is vehicle wouldn't start and when you turn the key off, the gauges start tweaking and twitching with no power to them from the key. I diagnosed this on the forum with one members rig about a week after mine did it. I jumped mine (wife though headlights were set to auto, but were really on, so dead battery) and have had no problem since. The other member may have replaced his battery, and I don't remember if there were other symptoms or not.

 

[gsmaclean]

Just a couple I found doing a very perfunctory search:

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=215439

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=221729

Also might want to check some fuses, #15 and #17 under the hood seem to keep popping up as well. Pull them, check them, reinsert.