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Okay. I have a 1995 Ford Contour with a 2.5L V6.
I was driving it to the end of my driveway and the car just cut out. No Power to anything, even my windshield wipers stopped.
I thought that it must me main fuse in the power distribution box, but after a visual inspection of the fuses, they all look fine. What else could it be? Any help is greatly appreciated. I really need my car back asap.
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0 power to anything? Check battery connections, main fuse as well (Visual inspection will often miss, use a multimeter checking resistance (Ohms). Likely a bad terminal contact or ground.
That is correct. No power to anything.
I have been having an intermittent check engine and coolant lights, in case that is relevant.
The main fuses are strange, I’ve never seen ones like them. They don’t come out as far as I can tell. I tried to pull them out like any other fuse, but they are connected to wires directly under them. The wires are connected with lug connectors to the bottom of the fuse that I can see, but they are impossible to unscrew without breaking something. I looked through my owners manual but it doesn’t say how to get them out.They should pull right out. Are you talking about the inside fuse panel that’s hidden until you drop it down?
The engine compartment fuse box (or distribution box) should be fairly straight forward once the top cover is removed. Although the 80amp fuses you’ll likely have to specially buy if you blew one. “F1” in the image I’ve posted below is the main one, which is 80amp.
I’d verify the terminals first, beg/borrow a multi-meter (DVM or DMM) from someone to trace this back to see where you’re losing power, and/or verifying no resistance on suspect fuses.
Thing is, if the main fuse went, or a main to the inside fuse panel went, it likely went for a reason. Possibly a bad main ground off the battery, or a short, in which case you’d REALLY want to find that cause so it’s not catastrophic later.
start with the battery and connections.They need to be
clean and tight.The battery voltage should be 12.6vNo, I was talking about the main fuse F1 in you diagram in the power dist. box beside the battery. I have tried to pull the fuse straight out, but it makes popping noises like I’m about to break something (I’m pulling really hard with pliers.)
I have checked the battery terminal connections and they are all snug and undamaged. Also, battery voltage is good. (new battery)
I have a multimeter, but I would not even know where to begin to look for the a short or some other failure. I figure it would have to be something pretty severe to blow an 80 AMP fuse. But again, I cant even tell whether the fuse is blown or not…Can you pull any of the others? You could just check for voltage on a pin from one of the others on the distro box. Then you know if that is blown or not.
As to the trouble pulling the 80amp fuse, they have usually 8mm bolts in each terminal. You’d need(want really, but I wouldn’t chance anything) to yank the ground off the battery first, then take the bolts off each. Usually via a side access portion (other times the outer portion will actually detach fully, not sure about this vehicle):
Those might actually be the other type which have bolts into the top where you’d need to remove the sides or upper distro cover if not exposed, again I’d have to see a picture or something:
Okay I took some pictures for you. Not sure what you mean but testing any 2 pins on two different fuses though.
[IMG]http://i50.tinypic.com/54yn35.jpg[/IMG]
This pic is just of the box so you can see what kind of access I have[IMG]http://i47.tinypic.com/161l1qo.jpg[/IMG]
Just an overview of the fuses.[IMG]http://i46.tinypic.com/245g22g.jpg[/IMG]
Here is a pic of the fasteners I think you are talking about, but I can’t pull the socket piece out far enough to get anything onto the fasteners. Is there something else I need to take loose before I can pull it out far enough?pull the fuse out.ohm out the fuse. with a test light
or dvom check for power at the pin connection.This will
be battery power to the fuse.You may need to unbolt the
distribution panel. you may have corroded terminals to
that terminal.I’m trying to figure out how to pull the fuse out without breaking anything at the moment. “ohm out the fuse”? You mean once I get the fuse out to check the voltage at the 2 connectors the fuse went into? Also, you mean the terminal as in the slot that the fuse is plugged into?
[quote=”zeo_nanomus” post=50202]Okay I took some pictures for you. Not sure what you mean but testing any 2 pins on two different fuses though.[/quote]
I meant that you can “test” that 80amp without actually testing it. Just yank one of the smaller fuses out that would have constant power; then see when probing each of the two hold pins on the box, if one has power. If it does, then the 80amp would be fine, but with this car I’m not sure. That 80amp might just be for the internal fuse box accessories and the entire rail is hot on the one side from the battery in the distro box.
Really, I’d just take the time to yank the battery out, the hold down bolts to the distro box, and figure out how to get access to the small hold-in bolts on the 80amp fuse’s terminal(s), and see if there are any obvious problems without worrying about shorting anything and the like. That section with the high-amp fuses may actually detach from what I can see in the pic, or the plastic tab wedged in between each fuse might be a hold-in that can be pushed down, I’d have to fiddle with it myself to know. 😉 But yanking it so you can look at it easier should make it apparent.
By “ohming out”, he means to check resistance across the two pins on the fuse. Continuity checking, if it’s got infinite resistance, then it’s blown. For any recent decent DMM, there’s a setting specifically for this that will beep audibly when a short is present with the two probes. Touch each pin on the fuse with a probe from DMM, beeps, good fuse, no beep = bad fuse.
Oh I was planning on testing continuity once I got the fuse out. lol. I’ve just never heard the term “ohming out” before.
There is a tab at the front of the dist. box that lets me pull the three main fuses up a little, but not far enough to get a wrench on those fasteners.
I’ll take the battery out tomorrow to see if I can get better access to the side of the dist. box to see if I can get at those fasteners.
If I can’t figure something out of something is over my head I’ll send some more pics to help you.
Thanks for all your advice so far! I’ll get back to you tomorrow.[quote=”zeo_nanomus” post=50223]I’m trying to figure out how to pull the fuse out without breaking anything at the moment. “ohm out the fuse”? You mean once I get the fuse out to check the voltage at the 2 connectors the fuse went into? Also, you mean the terminal as in the slot that the fuse is plugged into?[/quote]
ohm out-means to check continuity across the fuse.if an open
reading is read.The fuse is popped.if a reading is read the fuse
is good.The voltage to be read with the fuse removed where the
fuse was plugged into.(the slots) 😉I got the fuses out (finally). I ended up breaking a couple pieces of plastic getting the fuses out. I took a couple pictures of the fuse plug once I got it out.
I also tested the fuses once I got them out and they were fine. I’m going to have to order some new fuses and a plug since it was broken, but at this point I’m just wondering what else it could be.[IMG]http://i49.tinypic.com/ozmsm.jpg[/IMG]
Here is the fuse plug with the fuses in it. All were fine tested for continuity with a multimeter.
[IMG]http://i47.tinypic.com/um2cy.jpg[/IMG]
Here’s the fuses out of the plug
If the car’s totally dead, there really are only 3 viable reasons IMO. Fuse, connection, or line issue.
You can probe power on each fuse to see if down the line it’s actually getting power from further up, and of course yanking and testing each inside the car. Going to need to narrow down the focus of the fault likely with wiring diagrams.
Were this my car my focus would really be on the main frame ground(the split off line from the negative battery terminal going to a bolt on the frame of the vehicle, likely another for the engine itself), possibly the couple of main interior grounding points as well after. After that, I’d probably leave a door open (to watch for lighting to come on) and start jiggling fuse boxes, and lines to see if there was a connection/wiring issue.
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