Newbie needs electrical guru

[shortysfordxp]

Well I just found this nice little forum...glad I did!

I'm in search of someone who might have some advice for an explorer newbie with nowhere else to go but the shop...

I've got a '97 XLT and recently I ran the battery down by leaving my headlights on...after I jumped it the anti theft system stopped working correctly. I no longer have automatic lock, my remote entry doesn't work, even my keyless entry isn't working anymore. Oh, and the "theft" LED doesn't come on anymore when the doors are locked. I've checked the voltage in the battery and it's fine, the fuses all look good...

Anybody have any ideas? Any input would kick a$$, it might just save me a couple bucks for once.

Thanks!

 

[snocross1985]

I had the same exact problem on my truck when I left my fog lights on. The anti-theft worked all screwy and the voltage measured fine. I bought a new battery and it worked fine. I'd take your battery down to AutoZone if there is one near you (they do it for free) and ask them to test it. If its no good, new battery will solve your problem. If its fine, then i don't know.

 

[shortysfordxp]

FIXED.

I just thought I'd end this thread the right way for anyone who runs into this problem in the future...

I'm not exactly sure why this worked, but...all I did was disconnect the battery for about 15 minutes! When I hooked it back up everything was working as it should. I wasn't able to find anything on the internet about the onboard anti-theft computer system so I can't say exactly what happened. But I believe it's analogous to the timing system in that if the power supply from the battery is disconnected for any reason the system resets and goes through a "relearning" process. I must have reset the anti theft cpu system and maybe caused an error when I initially jumped it, and reset it correctly when I came back and disconnected/reconnected the battery.

Thanks for the reply snocross1985. I still plan on testing the battery because this is the second time it's run out of juice after about 10 mins of leaving the lights on...