My Explorer went crazy last night! Have Motor/Electrical prob please help! | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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My Explorer went crazy last night! Have Motor/Electrical prob please help!

King$nake

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Joined
May 19, 2006
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City, State
Oceanside, CA
Year, Model & Trim Level
1998 Eddie Bauer 5.0
Ok, I have a 98 Ford Explorer EB 5.0, and its almost in perfect shape with low miles, never had a problem before. But coming home from the movies last night, the truck backfired and as soon as it did, all my lights inside the vehicle went black. Than the lights came back on but were very dim. Than the headlights started going dim and flickering, and all the gauges on my dash started going haywire (doing almost complete 360's) and all my dash check engine and check fuel lights started coming on and off. The radio also completely shut off during this period. And at one point, the car actually died and started back up. It backfired a few more times by the time I got it home.

I thought it could be a bad alternator, but why the hell would the vehicle stop running?

Please help Ford is going to charge upwards of $150 just to diagnose the problem...

Thanks
Joe
 



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check your battery connections... make sure they are good and clean and tight.
 






King$nake said:
Please help Ford is going to charge upwards of $150 just to diagnose the problem...

Thanks
Joe

If you have a check engine light a local autozone, or place like that will probably have a tool to see what the code is and clear it for you for free. Once you find the code, post it up here, and someone will know what the problem is.
 






I second the suggestion to check the battery cables. Also, check the grounds, especially any grounds from the PCM which is located on the firewall slightly to the passenger side.
 






Actually, the check engine light never came on. My "Check Gauge" (fuel light) came on for a moment, along with "Door Ajar" (go figure) But basically all my lights were flashing crazy on my dash. It was like aliens were abducting me.

FYI, I check battery right now. Everything is tight and secure. How can I find out where the ground is, and if it is the ground, why would my electronics come on randomly?
And what is the PCM?

thanks dudes for the help
Joe
 






there was a similar post a while back... check your cabling behind the battery area. A previous post had a similar problem and found a short there which "arced" when his truck hit a bump.
 






The PCM is the Powertrain Control Module aka the computer that controls the engine and transmission. I would check the connector at the PCM to make sure it is not loose. I would also check the ground nearest the PCM. All of the ground wires are either Black (Ckt 57) or Black with a White Stripe (Ckt 570).

I am thinking that the symptoms that you describe would only occur if you had a bunch of circuits malfunctioning all at once - that is why the engine backfired and the lights went crazy. This would occur if you had a loose connector with a lot of circuits (PCM) or a ground that was loose.
 

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Ok...I checked the PCM wiring and the ground, everything seems to be tight and secure, so I went to Pep Boys today and bought a new alternator. Installed it in my garage, went for a test drive, same problem. New Alternator did not fix it.
Now, to elaborate on the symptoms, what is really wierd is when I mash on the brakes (have to be rolling, not at a stop) thats when all the interior lights really go crazy. The lights dim, my Check Fuel and Door Ajar lights come on and the interior lights go dim, off, and back on randomly. The gauges go nuts (MPH gauge will shoot up to 100+ MPH) and Tach will shoot up to redline randomly. Engine temp gauge goes up beyond hot and same with fuel gauge. The engine seems to have 0 effect on the gauges.

Anyways, hopefully this sounds familiar to someone
Keep the replies coming!
Thanks
joe
 






Alright dudes, just wanted to say thanks. I tracked the problem down to a second ground off the main battery I didnt initially see. It had been corroded. We fixed the ground and now all systems are go. Truck is running fine now!
Now all I have to do is re-set the gauges because they are now all messed up from the spaz-attack

thanks again
-Joe
 






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