tps plug found stripped wires

[drakon543]

07 mercury mountaineer 4.0
so i started getting a tps fault so i went to investigate and image shown is what i found. i dont know why someone would have done this and not even atleast wrapped the wires back up. Im just curious if anyone has a clue why someone stripped the 4 wires. im suprised i wasn't having issues relating to this before this weekend. well aside from my original post from when i joined up. maybe someone was just trying to diagnose an issue and forgot to tape them up. either way if someone has some geusses of other possibilities. may even lead to other locations i should investigate.

 

[Rcflyer330]

very common problem on the 4th gen its just crappy wiring. The wiring gets brittle then cracks from the heat cycling in the engine bay and bare wires is the outcome. while you are at it check the other wires in the engine bay for the same problem.

 

[07EddyB]

That looks like an awfully neat break for rotting insulation. Across all four wires at once in the same place for the same length? I agree that someone might have been doing some diagnostics. My other theory is critter related - got any mice in the garage?

 

[94Eddie]

That doesn't look like bad insulation to me. In fact, I would say the insulation I can see looks to be in great shape. The only reason I can think of to do this is to get voltage readings but this can be done with a good scan tool. It doesn't look like it has been this way for long or I would expect to see more corrosion on the copper.

 

[drakon543]

ya i was thinking it was probably something on those lines. ive only had it sinch march and only one shop has seen it since its purchase and that was just for tires. only thing ive done so far is your basic tune up and oil changes and replaced the ignition coil. none of that is near there so i know it wasn't me.

 

[94Eddie]

That stripping definitely wasn't done by accident. It is too uniform and cleanly cut.

 

[Rcflyer330]

I may be wrong but when I zoom in I see jagged edges on all the wires where a bend would have been at. Could also be rodent damage or someone stripped the wiring either way we will never know the exact cause and can only make guesses.

 

[drakon543]

I may be wrong but when I zoom in I see jagged edges on all the wires where a bend would have been at. Could also be rodent damage or someone stripped the wiring either way we will never know the exact cause and can only make guesses.

ya i figured id ask incase there was some kind of modification relating to that. something that would clear it up.

 

[MakinJeepsWeep!]

Looks like some wires on my 06 merc looked striped but just from time.

 

[JAWIT]

These wires look just like those going to my vehicle’s tps before they replaced them. I don’t think anyone did this on purpose. Over time, the poor wiring insulation gets brittle and breaks and where the wires bend, the insulation falls apart. The other day, I noticed my EGR valves electrical connection in the same state and will likely require attention in the near future. MAF sensor wiring too will need to be replaced. I really wish Ford would have spent the extra money and used wiring with decent insulation instead of trying to save a few dollars per vehicle by using the cheapest they could source.

 

[JAWIT]

Thinking this insulation damage is from bad factory work, or hungry rodents, or simply time+rot, is just ignoring the obvious.
The wiring was intenionally\neatly stripped & left that way by an incompetent owner or mechanic.
If you've owned vehicle a short time, chaulk it up to the previous owner.
If you've owned vehicle a long time & had someone else work on it, DON'T let them near your vehicles again, especially DON'T pay them again.
If you've owned vehicle a long time, do your own maintenance & not noticed this before, blame your own negligence or forgetfulness.
In any case, either re-insulate the wires with Scotch33+ZipTies or ButtSplice+HeatShrink in a new Plug+Harness,
but most importantly learn to inspect your vehicles a little closer, especially after someone else does any work & before you pay them.
My 2 cents.

It’s not from bad factory work,it’s from using cheap wiring in critical system parts that just have not held up well over the years. Other folks here have experienced similar degradation of the wiring insulation in the same or similar areas that ultimately have resulted in all sorts of erratic vehicle behavior.

 

[94Eddie]

The other thing I noticed about the bare wire is it all evenly degraded. If the isulation has deteriorated over a long time period then parts of the wire exposed longer would be more tarnished than the parts with less exposure. It looks like all the wire was exposed at once.

These wires look just like those going to my vehicle’s tps before they replaced them. I don’t think anyone did this on purpose. Over time, the poor wiring insulation gets brittle and breaks and where the wires bend, the insulation falls apart. The other day, I noticed my EGR valves electrical connection in the same state and will likely require attention in the near future. MAF sensor wiring too will need to be replaced. I really wish Ford would have spent the extra money and used wiring with decent insulation instead of trying to save a few dollars per vehicle by using the cheapest they could source.

I don't see any other signs of deterioration of the insulation anywhere else in the photo. In fact, it looks to be in very good condition.

 

[Beachcomber86]

Thinking this insulation damage is from bad factory work, or hungry rodents, or simply time+rot, is just ignoring the obvious.
The wiring was intenionally\neatly stripped & left that way by an incompetent owner or mechanic.
If you've owned vehicle a short time, chaulk it up to the previous owner.
If you've owned vehicle a long time & had someone else work on it, DON'T let them near your vehicles again, especially DON'T pay them again.
If you've owned vehicle a long time, do your own maintenance & not noticed this before, blame your own negligence or forgetfulness.
In any case, either re-insulate the wires with Scotch33+ZipTies or ButtSplice+HeatShrink in a new Plug+Harness,
but most importantly learn to inspect your vehicles a little closer, especially after someone else does any work & before you pay them.
My 2 cents.

You would be incorrect! This is a crappy wiring harness from Ford. The bare wires are due to chaffing from the harness cover not being properly taped over the wires and/or the wiring having a bend. There are 4 major areas where this occurs and causes a weird acting beast: 1) MAF, 2) TPMS, 3) Distributor, 4) Fan. See this thread for more information.

Found my ghosts in the machine

Hey guys, If you've got unexplained, and intermittent, problems, here's a possible cause. My Ex has developed what is best described as the "hiccups" at idle. It doesn't happen all the time, and feels like a misfire. No codes, though. So I thought I'd just inspect the engine for (esp the...

www.explorerforum.com

Once you repair the damage, you will be amazed at how much happier your beast will be!

 

[Beachcomber86]

Must be a Ford union worker crowd here.

Nope, just lived through finding and fixing this exact issue 200 miles away from home with no tools!

 

[Mbrooks420]

Thinking this insulation damage is from bad factory work, or hungry rodents, or simply time+rot, is just ignoring the obvious.
The wiring was intenionally\neatly stripped & left that way by an incompetent owner or mechanic.
If you've owned vehicle a short time, chaulk it up to the previous owner.
If you've owned vehicle a long time & had someone else work on it, DON'T let them near your vehicles again, especially DON'T pay them again.
If you've owned vehicle a long time, do your own maintenance & not noticed this before, blame your own negligence or forgetfulness.
In any case, either re-insulate the wires with Scotch33+ZipTies or ButtSplice+HeatShrink in a new Plug+Harness,
but most importantly learn to inspect your vehicles a little closer, especially after someone else does any work & before you pay them.
My 2 cents.

It’s not neatly stripped if you really look at it. Even a hack would have tried to add tape, or something. I’ve seen wiring insulation fail in hot environments. Once the insulation fails it continues to pull away from the break.

 

[Mbrooks420]

Must be a Ford union worker crowd here.

Wouldn’t a union worker blame it on someone else....

 

[Mbrooks420]

... & opinions; we've all got one.

I don’t see how that answers the question, but okay.

 

[Mik33]

Just rebuilt my 4.0 and the wires were exactly the same. They threw a TPS fault and took away the throttle completely. The insulation on the wires from the factory is terrible. When I had the engine out there were so many wires I rewrapped going all the way up the electrical harness. A lot of wires running along the front side of the engine bay were exposed as well. Once I got most, cant say all, wires wrapped back up...I found that there were lights under the side view mirrors and my dome light quit coming on out of the blue. Once the TPS wires were wrapped, throttle was back and all was well with the world.

 

[Mbrooks420]

Must be a madman running around “cleanly” stripping these wires... Hide ya wives, hide ya daughters, they stripping everything out here.

 

[94Eddie]

Yeh, that must be it, like cattle being slaughtered by alien spacecraft; guess they gotta eat too?

I guess you haven't seen a UFO close enough to hit it with a rock. Experiencing this redefines your limits of what is possible.