Weird PCM issues? I have bad news...

[R0ADHEAD]

Hi, I'm new to the forums, but not new to tinkering on Ford's. Unfortunately I've found a dud and I'm here to share the bad news. If you're reading this, you're either experiencing issues or soon will be. Here's my story...

About a year ago, my neighbor who works at a body shop called me and asked if I wanted a cheap car. A co-worker of his had a 2006 Explorer EB 4.0L that had some broken chain guides. They started disassembly and realized the engine needs pulled so they stopped and wanted to sell. I couldn't pass it up for $300.

I got it home and pulled the engine. I ended up doing a full rebuild after finding that #6 had filled with a bit of water and left some pitting. After buttoning up the engine, I pushed the Explorer into my garage to prepare for reinstall and something caught my eye. The electrical connector for the fan clutch had some exposed wires right behind the connector. I found this odd. I've worked on several Fords of this vintage from F-150's and Expedition's but never an electrical issue like this. All 5 wires were bare, about an inch behind the connector and showing about 3/4"of exposed copper. I took some pictures and looked around at local uPick scrap yards and found some potential donors. I needed a few other items as well as some pictures of how everything needs to go back together as I wasn't the one that did the early disassembly.

At the yard I found 2 donors and low and behold, both had the same issue. That's weird. I ended up cutting the pigtails off the donors thinking I'll practice depinning and repair. New pigtails are available from Ford for $50 each. Ick.

I come home and figure out how to depin the connector and get to work. I start tearing back the tape and split loom and it gets worse. I begin inspecting other connections on the harness and just about every connector has the same issue. Just behind the connector, the insulation is cracked and dry rotted, most likely from movement during previous maintenance or repairs.

Apparently the wire supplied to make these harnesses is junk. If it hasn't failed yet, it soon will. Any maintenance you do on one part may disturb the connections elsewhere leading to more problems. If your Explorer runs now but has an issue, my recommendation is drive it until it quits. Anything you do to disturb the harness will cause more issues sending you down the barrel of the parts cannon.

New harnesses are NLA (no longer available). I'll attach some pictures of my findings. I'm still debating a rewire just because the car is so nice and the price was so cheap. I can just as easily cut bait and move on. I wanted to share what I found and prepare the rest of the owners of the '06-'10 (could be more) for the impending doom.

A picture of my harness, and a random donor in the junk yard.

 

[joney]

Yikes! Don't know if that's a 4th gen thing, or happens in rather hot areas? Not an issue on my 2nd gen, but it's always been up north. Ebay maybe, or used parts online for replacement? A little concerned about the #6 being filled with water also.

 

[Rcflyer330]

The wire issues you have seen have been well documented on the fourm for the 4th gens is actually one of the first recommendations to look for if you are having any engine related issue. the thread name is Found my ghosts in the machine. I have a 2010 and have not had any issues yet. if you a willing to do the work i would say put new pigtails or connectors and run it. also you dont have to buy the connectors from ford you can probally google ford electrical connectors and get them much cheaper.

 

[J_C]

Wow, glad I'm not dealing with that.

A lot of the Ford connectors have an insert you can pull out to de-pin them and supply a new wire all the way to the contact.

Otherwise, I think I'd get some non-acid-cure (aka "sensor safe") RTV and coat any areas I found, to keep it functional till you go through the wires set by set... for at least the *important* ones.

Anyone know what made these different on a 4th gen? Was this Ford's attempt at soy based wire insulation instead of vinyl? I thought I read something about that years ago but the main concern at the time was rodents are more likely to eat the soy based insulation.

 

[joney]

Wow, glad I'm not dealing with that.

A lot of the Ford connectors have an insert you can pull out to de-pin them and supply a new wire all the way to the contact.

Otherwise, I think I'd get some non-acid-cure (aka "sensor safe") RTV and coat any areas I found, to keep it functional till you go through the wires set by set... for at least the *important* ones.

Anyone know what made these different on a 4th gen? Was this Ford's attempt at soy based wire insulation instead of vinyl? I thought I read something about that years ago but the main concern at the time was rodents are more likely to eat the soy based insulation.

Liquid Electrical Tape I'd bought a can of this in black, to coat the outside of a sensor whose case crumbled when I was unplugging it from the air tube (I was changing the thermostat). Comes in different colors also. To insulate the wires where the insulation cracked, should work. Has an applicator brush in the cap.

 

[donalds]

My vote is De pin the connector one wire at a time and put some shrink tubing on the wires ....cheap fix

 

[94Eddie]

As others have said, this is a know issue with 4th gen Explorers and Mountaineers. More so with the 2006-2008 models. It seems the 2009 and 2010 models may have received updated insulation on the harness wiring. The problems are usually found near the connectors and a little beyond this point where the wires have just gone into the looms a short distance. It can be an absolute nightmare to deal with insulation degradation issues because the shorted wires can trip any number of codes. The problems resulting from this can be extremely difficult to identify and pinpoint the source of the short(s). I have seen where people have spent thousands of dollars replacing parts that were never broken trying to fix these issues.

 

[94Eddie]

My vote is De pin the connector one wire at a time and put some shrink tubing on the wires ....cheap fix

There are also quite a few high quality heat shrink electrical tapes that work about as well as the tubing. Some are able to seal themselves completely around the wire for a waterproof fit that will resist a lot of fluids and high/low temperatures. It is a good solution where de-pinning isn't possible or practical.

 

[Bazz270]

Not a problem at all

All of the motorcraft connectors sold separately as a repair kits.

Any of the harness part could be fixed using heat shrink press/crimp sleeves and automotive grade wires and insulation according to the workshop manual electric diagrams (including repair instructions).actually,you can rewire the whole engine harness.make sure to use the same replacement wire AWG.

Dont see any reason to use junkyard crap instead of rewiring the harness.

 

[R0ADHEAD]

I started depinning the connectors and repairing. I had just finished a repair on a 4 pin connector by first coating the bare wire with liquid tape and then using marine grade 3:1 shrink with adhesive. The repair looked good, then I peeled back a bit more tape and loom andthe same 4 wires had another break.

I've been searching part numbers and know for certain the original 6L2Z-14398-AB is NLA. I did find 6L2Z-9D930-BA but no cross reference verification. I'm headed to the dealer tomorrow for verification. If I can buy the whole harness, I will.

 

[donalds]

What is wrong with the junkyard just cause it's 1 man's junk doesn't mean it's garbage or crap

I built this with lots of junk yard parts including the blower

 

[94Eddie]

What is wrong with the junkyard just cause it's 1 man's junk doesn't mean it's garbage or crap

I built this with lots of junk yard parts including the blower

The way things are going with supply chain issues and discontinued parts, we are all going to be rummaging through salvage yards.

 

[07EddyB]

The way things are going with supply chain issues and discontinued parts, we are all going to be rummaging through salvage yards.

Sadly true - and worst part is it includes cars made from 2020 on - not just the older stuff.

 

[94Eddie]

Sadly true - and worst part is it includes cars made from 2020 on - not just the older stuff.

Wait until the government nannies really start pushing us to EVs. Between artificially inflated fuel prices and lack of parts support all us ICE die hards will be screwed!

 

[J_C]

Not a problem at all

All of the motorcraft connectors sold separately as a repair kits.

Any of the harness part could be fixed using heat shrink press/crimp sleeves and automotive grade wires and insulation according to the workshop manual electric diagrams (including repair instructions).actually,you can rewire the whole engine harness.make sure to use the same replacement wire AWG.

Dont see any reason to use junkyard crap instead of rewiring the harness.

I don't have a problem with using junkyard components in general (unless they are a wear item), but in this case, if all suitable donor vehicles have wiring with the same insulation problem, then it would be a three stage process.

1) Get the junkyard harness
2) Rebuild it with new wire and existing connector contacts cleaned
3) Replace on-vehicle harness with rebuilt one

The remaining problem is, you lose easy ID from all the different color and stripe combinations. Even if you managed to find a bulk wire supplier that has all these different color/stripe combinations, then buying short lengths of many different SKUs, is usually far more expensive than chopping up a spool that's a single color into each length needed.

With all this in consideration, if a new harness isn't available or outrageously priced, I'd be most likely to use clear heatshrink tubing to cover them all, so their original color/strip is still there on the bits of insulation that haven't fallen off yet. I mean where the color coding matters, in some cases if you have the connector pinout and it's just a couple leads, then red as power and black as ground (or signal return in some situations) is a pretty identifiable color scheme.

 

[R0ADHEAD]

Dealer showed that the new part number is correct, but is NLA. He checked nationwide inventory and showed 11 available in the US. Needless to say, I ordered one so that leaves 10 remaining.

I searched at least 6 vehicles in junk yards (Middle Tennessee) ranging from 2006-2010, Explorer and Mountaineer. Every harness had the same issue. I was about to buy some peg board and mount the harness to remake it, but time is money and $326 for a new harness is well worth my time.

For 2006: 6L2Z-9D930-BA Dealer Code 12A581

 

[Bazz270]

NLA is a bullshit.really.

They starting the production from time to time.

It depends on the backorders quantity.actually they can make any oem part any time with the existing drawings.
Any 2006-2007 production years and make harness could fit with a minor modifications.

2008-2010 harness will fit too but with extra changes.
No need to panic.

Gen4 vehicles are far far away from critical oem parts shortage

 

[kwikdraw1]

Wow, glad I'm not dealing with that.

A lot of the Ford connectors have an insert you can pull out to de-pin them and supply a new wire all the way to the contact.

Otherwise, I think I'd get some non-acid-cure (aka "sensor safe") RTV and coat any areas I found, to keep it functional till you go through the wires set by set... for at least the *important* ones.

Anyone know what made these different on a 4th gen? Was this Ford's attempt at soy based wire insulation instead of vinyl? I thought I read something about that years ago but the main concern at the time was rodents are more likely to eat the soy based insulation.

thats either rodent damage of 4 legs or possible 2 legged kind depending on what type of shops you have in the area

 

[J_C]

^ Mostly happening an inch from the connectors though, seems as likely to be brittle insulation and cracking where it bends, since rodents don't usually have rulers with them to measure an inch.

 

[Turdle]

Any evidence of pin probe holes from previous troubleshooting? ( 2 leg rodent)