Jim Faulkner
Dad's Garage, my house, USA.
- Joined
- August 26, 2017
- Messages
- 31
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- Santa Fe, NM
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1997 Explorer XLT 4x4
1997 Explorer XLT
My son was trying to start it up last night and his hand slipped off the key mid-start. From there there THEFT light started blinking and there is nothing from the system: no lights, no horn, nothing. When you press the horn you get a mild chirping click. Battery tests as fully charged and OK. When I hook up the battery sometimes the THEFT light blinks steadily. Unhook and rehook and no blinking THEFT light but a steady clicking sound coming from radio area. Took out the radio and it sounds like the click comes from the black box that is behind the radio, with three wire harnesses in it. If I click the lock button on the FOB the lock goes crazy and continuously cycles the lock, THEFT light blinks rapidly, never stopping unless I unhook the battery again. This is new, as it seems to change every time I monkey around with it. In the back, inside where the washer reservoir is for the rear is where I thought the anti theft RAP modules are. A clicking sound comes from that area as well. There is a grey box with two wire harnesses and what looks like an antenna cable coming from it. I tried disconnecting those wires, no change.
No lights, no horn, won't even try to crank over. Never get a spark form the terminal when connecting the battery cable. But the battery tested as fully charged. If I put the key into ACC mode (all the way counter clockwise) I get a dinging sound like normal, except it dings three times, pauses, then three times, pauses, etc. The pauses coincide with when you get the relay clicking sound. The keys do not seem to have chips in them, and a dealer mechanic that looked at the key ring swears there is no chip in the key so we must not have anti theft. But the car has a THEFT red light that is blinking, and the manual talks about the theft fuses. I pulled and inspected fuses and all are fine (manual has it as fuse 3 in the power distribution block, and fuse 20 in the interior panel).
This is a crazy issue - looks like some weird short but I can't figure out what or how. Was working just fine until his hand slipped off the key trying to start it last night. I had the battery disconnected all night (negative terminal) and took the battery to Auto Zone this morning to be tested - it was fine and fully charged.
As a '97, and with no apparent chip in the key, a dealer mechanic swears there is no way it has the theft system since the car has been running with these normal looking keys. But everything in the car seems to indicate it does have a theft system, including the red blinking THEFT light and the anti theft fuses in their positions.
Any ideas? Video of issue here:
My son was trying to start it up last night and his hand slipped off the key mid-start. From there there THEFT light started blinking and there is nothing from the system: no lights, no horn, nothing. When you press the horn you get a mild chirping click. Battery tests as fully charged and OK. When I hook up the battery sometimes the THEFT light blinks steadily. Unhook and rehook and no blinking THEFT light but a steady clicking sound coming from radio area. Took out the radio and it sounds like the click comes from the black box that is behind the radio, with three wire harnesses in it. If I click the lock button on the FOB the lock goes crazy and continuously cycles the lock, THEFT light blinks rapidly, never stopping unless I unhook the battery again. This is new, as it seems to change every time I monkey around with it. In the back, inside where the washer reservoir is for the rear is where I thought the anti theft RAP modules are. A clicking sound comes from that area as well. There is a grey box with two wire harnesses and what looks like an antenna cable coming from it. I tried disconnecting those wires, no change.
No lights, no horn, won't even try to crank over. Never get a spark form the terminal when connecting the battery cable. But the battery tested as fully charged. If I put the key into ACC mode (all the way counter clockwise) I get a dinging sound like normal, except it dings three times, pauses, then three times, pauses, etc. The pauses coincide with when you get the relay clicking sound. The keys do not seem to have chips in them, and a dealer mechanic that looked at the key ring swears there is no chip in the key so we must not have anti theft. But the car has a THEFT red light that is blinking, and the manual talks about the theft fuses. I pulled and inspected fuses and all are fine (manual has it as fuse 3 in the power distribution block, and fuse 20 in the interior panel).
This is a crazy issue - looks like some weird short but I can't figure out what or how. Was working just fine until his hand slipped off the key trying to start it last night. I had the battery disconnected all night (negative terminal) and took the battery to Auto Zone this morning to be tested - it was fine and fully charged.
As a '97, and with no apparent chip in the key, a dealer mechanic swears there is no way it has the theft system since the car has been running with these normal looking keys. But everything in the car seems to indicate it does have a theft system, including the red blinking THEFT light and the anti theft fuses in their positions.
Any ideas? Video of issue here:
