wife drove my ex and got stuck now its acting weird

[kamikaze_fish]

Last night my wife drove my explorer to go get her mom from the hospital. She dropped her mom off at home and got stuck in 2 feet of snow in her driveway. She did use 4wd to get out and turned it off when she got home. That's all the more details I've gotten out of her. Now for the "acting weird".

Before this, the lights for the gauge cluster didn't work when the headlights were on, because of a tranny issue, the od light flashes. Now with the headlights on, no interior lights work and the od light goes off, even if I turn od off, still no light. The rear end has a clunk when I let off the accelerator. It got a little better the more I drove it but still had a slight clunk. For the first 10 miles this morning od did not work. I stopped to get gas knowing it was going to be a gas guzzling day. When I got back on the road, od worked fine.

Can anyone give me ideas where to start on finding my problems? What could have happened to cause this? Oh, and it is above freezing (43 degrees) here so I don't think she got snow packed and frozen into anything that wouldn't have melted off 5 hours later by the time I got in to drive.

 

[kamikaze_fish]

For what it's worth, it's a '95 auto completely stock 174k miles

 

[Mbrooks420]

Does the OD light come on when you first turn on the key? Maybe the bulb has burnt out. Your best bet may be to get the codes read, and see what it thinks is wrong. I'd also check all the fuses.

 

[Joe Dirt]

There may still be snow packed in a connector somewhere, I'm vondering VSS... The bulbs are odd though- how did you figure out that a trans issue wouldn't let the cluster lights come on?

Before the truck was put in 4wd, was it peeled out relentlessly trying to get it unstuck?

Horatio says investigate the wife...

 

[kamikaze_fish]

There may still be snow packed in a connector somewhere, I'm vondering VSS... The bulbs are odd though- how did you figure out that a trans issue wouldn't let the cluster lights come on?

Before the truck was put in 4wd, was it peeled out relentlessly trying to get it unstuck?

Horatio says investigate the wife...

Thanks Joe Dirt, gave me a good laugh. I didn't figure out the tranny issue is related, they were just problems before this. When I have the headlights off, the OD light resumes it's normal flashing because of the tranny. Turn the headlights on and the od light goes out and no dash, radio, heater control lights work. I'm going to go check the fuses shortly and hope I can find one or 2 blown. I also suspect there was lots of wheel spin either before or after 4wd was engaged. I'm praying she's learned from watching me on how to properly get out of snow with it but she is a woman...

 

[71cutty455]

Last night my wife drove my explorer...

There's your problem...

 

[red.EDDIE.4x4]

^^^do we need to go down the "woman driver" road???^^^

 

[Joe Dirt]

to the last post...

Have you read your codes? Check my sig for a link since you have a '95 if your check engine light works...

 

[Turdle]

The cluster dimmer is set to dim--maybe?

Also could be the light switch causing the issues with lights

 

[kamikaze_fish]

I checked the dimmer and it's not that. I checked the fuses and fuse 3 was blown so I replaced it, checked all my lights and things were good for about 3 minutes til it blew again. The next step is this weekend (hopefully) I'm going to pick up a chiltons and tear into the dash. Knowing that the gauge cluster lights weren't working previously, I'm wondering if whatever was causing them to not work, may have finally found a path to arc to a ground and start blowing fuses. I'm also hoping and praying the problem is directly behind or below the gauge cluster.

For the rear end I'm still not sure where to start on that. Does it sound strange that when it clunks, it almost feels like the rear axle is moving as if it was mounted on rubber? I feel the clunk really well and it's not like my friends truck when his u-joint was giving him problems.

Joe dirt I'll check out that video over lunch. They've got youtube blocked here at work. And no I haven't checked codes yet. I stopped by advanced auto one day and they said they weren't getting any codes through the port so hopefully I can do it your way.

 

[kamikaze_fish]

So far...
I'm probably slower than most about working on it but I don't have a garage, half my tools are an hour away, and it's not my only vehicle. Sure it pisses the wife off cause she doesn't have a car while it's parked but she should have took hers that night ha!

I haven't bought a book yet so I'm shooting in the dark looking around. Looking through a few different online resources I'm at a loss to which wire goes out of the light switch to all the lights. I have a diagram I found online for a '96 which says it's white/lt blue. That wire doesn't exist to the switch. Then I traced my alarm wire that powers the lights and it goes to violet/white. That wire doesn't exist at the switch either.

I did get the gauge cluster out since I figured it was part of the problem. Turns out, once again, the majority here was right. My lights on the cluster are burned out. So, I'll get those replaced and keep looking for the problem causing the fuse to blow.

I'm going to get the fuse problem taken care of before I run the codes to see what else is going on.

Does anyone know what wires on the back of the radio are responsible for illumination? The large plug is missing the back half of it's plug so the connections are exposed. Not sure if that could have something to do with it. Is it possible or likely that somehow my light switch is the culprit? Any suggestions on how I can test it to know?

 

[kamikaze_fish]

Talk about a waste of time. I just realized I was reading the diagram wrong for the '96 and the wire coming off the dimmer is purple/white. :facepalm:

 

[kamikaze_fish]

Any suggestions for how to test the wiring? The connections where the alarm is hooked up looks good, no breaks, it's soldered and taped well. Is it possible that snow somehow could have gotten into my trailer light connecter and caused a short?

 

[kamikaze_fish]

Not that it necessarily pertains to this thread but I figure while I'm doing the fixing I'll include it. I picked up the bulbs to replace in my gauge cluster last night so that part is done. Still mentally at a loss as to where I should start looking next for wiring causing the fuse to blow.

 

[kamikaze_fish]

I've had some help on this and it magically stopped blowing fuses for a while which makes it extremely hard to troubleshoot.
Now I'm working on the troubleshooting again. I'm looking at a wiring diagram and for the park lamp relay, it says it is located "behind center of I/P". Anyone know what it means by I/P?

 

[Mbrooks420]

Instrument Panel maybe?

 

[kamikaze_fish]

That sounds like a good possibility. I thought maybe it meant Interior Panel but that's not very descriptive.

 

[kamikaze_fish]

Wiring is fixed. I found the problem actually was the trailer harness box behind the left taillight. Now I get to put my ex back together. I'm so excited! On to the next project with it. Replacing the TPS, fuel filter change, oil change.

 

[kamikaze_fish]

Regroup. Next project is....

My ex has decided to start stalling when I go over bumps, like really rough patches on the highway. Any ideas?