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All the battery connections were tight prior to the vehicle getting towed to the dealer the first time. I had fiddled with them then and disconnected them and held them together for a minute and left disconnected for a few minutes to see if resetting the computers in the car helped.
I did not check the grounds to the frame, etc so thanks for that suggestion. I had previously touched up the ground located under the air box and applied electrolytic grease. I’m not going to assume the dealer checked those ground locations.
They tried to blame a bad SDM for it the second time around but they basically admitted they weren’t sure and it was yesterday at 5:30pm (meaning they all just wanted to get out of there for the holiday weekend where they don’t work again until Monday). I have a feeling their going to jump to conclusions to call it a bad BCM on Monday when the service writer follows up with me.If it is a bad ground it’s possible it could be causing the vehicle to lose it’s communication on the level 2 bus I’d assume. I also think the PCM is located in or near the air box on this vehicle and I wonder if they checked that connection. They had a heck of a time pulling the code for the bad SDM because the level 2 bus wasn’t functional which also explains why the cluster was lighting up with low fuel, etc.
All the battery connections were tight prior to the vehicle getting towed to the dealer the first time. I had fiddled with them then and disconnected them and held them together for a minute and left disconnected for a few minutes to see if resetting the computers in the car helped.
I did not check the grounds to the frame, etc so thanks for that suggestion. I had previously touched up the ground located under the air box and applied electrolytic grease. I’m not going to assume the dealer checked those ground locations.
They tried to blame a bad SDM for it the second time around but they basically admitted they weren’t sure and it was yesterday at 5:30pm (meaning they all just wanted to get out of there for the holiday weekend where they don’t work again until Monday). I have a feeling their going to jump to conclusions to call it a bad BCM on Monday when the service writer follows up with me.If it is a bad ground it’s possible it could be causing the vehicle to lose it’s communication on the level 2 bus I’d assume. I also think the PCM is located in or near the air box on this vehicle and I wonder if they checked that connection. They had a heck of a time pulling the code for the bad SDM because the level 2 bus wasn’t functional which also explains why the cluster was lighting up with low fuel, etc.
A lot of these older ford ECUs had leaky capacitors. In the past I’ve soldered in new capacitors and fixed them but if you don’t know what you’re doing it’s not something the novice could really expect to do on their first attempt at soldering.
There’s a few repair/rebuild services online where you can mail the module to them, they fix it and ship it back. They seem to run $180-200. Not sure if that’s more economical than the replacements you found at the local chains.
A lot of these older ford ECUs had leaky capacitors. In the past I’ve soldered in new capacitors and fixed them but if you don’t know what you’re doing it’s not something the novice could really expect to do on their first attempt at soldering.
There’s a few repair/rebuild services online where you can mail the module to them, they fix it and ship it back. They seem to run $180-200. Not sure if that’s more economical than the replacements you found at the local chains.
ok so you’re losing coolant. What does the engine oil look like? Does it look like normal oil or is it milky?
ok so you’re losing coolant. What does the engine oil look like? Does it look like normal oil or is it milky?
ok so ticking only during movement and increasing in periodicity with speed almost sounds like a CV joint to me. If you look under the vehicle are any of the CV joint rubber boots ripped or have grease all over the outside of them?
ok so ticking only during movement and increasing in periodicity with speed almost sounds like a CV joint to me. If you look under the vehicle are any of the CV joint rubber boots ripped or have grease all over the outside of them?
If it were me I’d see if one of the local auto parts store has a radiator pressure tester in their loaner tool program. That way you can pressure test the system and try to see where the leak is coming from better. That way if there’s an issue with the water pump the mechanic put in you can take it back for them to look at with a little bit more knowledge.
If it were me I’d see if one of the local auto parts store has a radiator pressure tester in their loaner tool program. That way you can pressure test the system and try to see where the leak is coming from better. That way if there’s an issue with the water pump the mechanic put in you can take it back for them to look at with a little bit more knowledge.
I got my hands on the vehicle again and checked the +12 and ground lines to the EBCM and they checked out ok. The internal part of the plug was a bit crudded up so I sprayed it down with some electrical contact cleaner, let it evaporate out and then reconnected the harness. Since that point the traction control and ABS lights have remained off for the last 3 days… so I’m hopefully optimistic.
Next thing to tackle on this vehicle will be the airbag light. It’ll need to go to the dealer for the code to be read though since no one aside from the dealer has a reader capable of reading airbag codes. Yay.
I got my hands on the vehicle again and checked the +12 and ground lines to the EBCM and they checked out ok. The internal part of the plug was a bit crudded up so I sprayed it down with some electrical contact cleaner, let it evaporate out and then reconnected the harness. Since that point the traction control and ABS lights have remained off for the last 3 days… so I’m hopefully optimistic.
Next thing to tackle on this vehicle will be the airbag light. It’ll need to go to the dealer for the code to be read though since no one aside from the dealer has a reader capable of reading airbag codes. Yay.
I wouldn’t say the 2nd gen neons have a bad reputation if people do proper maintenance. About the only failures I know on them is their radiators which have the transmission cooler at the bottom or the normal things like timing belts (yay interference engines!)
Here’s a video I used to change out the shoes and hardware on my rear drums on my 04. Once you’ve got it all apart it’s not much more work to replace the cylinder and bleed the brakes.
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvKD6Jcfqm8[/video]