Car electrics went funny

Yup exactly the same sort of stuff on my Nissan Micra.. it wouldn't remote lock/unlock intermittently, then one day it just wouldn't do a darned thing.

Previously I'd had the boot lock goung clatter clatter as I drove locking/unlocking itself pseudo randomly (I slit the rubber boot with a scalpel and squirted WD40 into it, seemed to cure it. The garage had replaced the darned swith 13months ago and I wasn't going to pay up again)
I dissconnected the battery and left it on charge (it wasn't flat) cleaned the terminals, waggled a few connections (like ya do).
I walked into work (most enjoyable...the walk not the work)
Got home that night re-connected it all... no probs since (crosses fingers, touches wood...throws assorted condiments over shoulder)

Damn cars could do with a big 're-boot' button.

Del

"Damn cars could do with a big 're-boot' button..."

... and not just cars. Similar thing happens occasionally with my mobile/cellphone (Sony Ericsson). Sometimes just 'locks up' with grey screen (blank with backlight on full), & all other indicators lit. Only way out is to take the battery out to force a re-boot (or wait til it runs out of charge).

I've also had PC lock-ups, where there's no response to the 'power' button - need to switch off & on at the wall to get it to re-start.

Thanks JohnDG and Del

As you say the "switch-it-off-and-on-again" technique is standard for various things like phones, computers, printers, TV digi-boxes.

But car is a bit more worrying. Apart from the inconvenience, I just hope it doesn't happen while driving! Modern cars are brilliant in lots of ways, but when this sort of thing happens you hanker for the old days when you could tell just what each part did.

Cheers.........Codey

what ever you do don't take it to ford those guys are under a tremendous amount of stress to make money these days no one is buying cars so the owners are relying on the service dept to generate the cash flow...you fixed your problem by disconnecting and re connecting the battery there you go there is no reason to go any further you had a poor connection i have seen that before many times...turn the key and everything bugs out clean the terminals and connectors with cola and a wire brush...yea i said it cola,it will neutralize the acid and it cleans the worst oxidation off of copper try it..bet you never have that problem again

Does it work with diet cola> What about caffeine free cola? What about caffeine free diet cola? Root beer? Cream soda? Sarsaparilla? What about store brands? Life is so confusing now.

ok bob i know it sounds funny,but i dare you to try it take a dirty copper penny the greenest one you can find or some pipe and pour some coke on it and let it sit for a while. don't knock it till you try it and let me and every one else know how good it works!!! by the way Franks Red Hot hot makes green pennies shine brand new.

Yes I know it works. I'm not mocking you at all. I will admit to having used this myself.

Everybody - thanks for all the interesting comments on this. Much appreciated!

Codey

thank you bob....you got me hot there for a minute

Might I suggest a long tall glass of cola. Cooled of course.

why thank you don't mind if i do

What you did was the Ford car equivalent of Cntrl-Alt-Del on a PC.....

Many electrical devices with microprocessors respond well to being left switched off with no battery connected.

I have "repaired" many devices including CD players, Calculators, washing machines, TVs etc..

Some need to be shorted across the battery terminals of the device, after the battery has been removed of course, to discharge any PS caps......

This sounds very much like you have a bad ground connection someplace, and disconnecting the battery corrected it. When a ground goes bad the current seeks a return path through any available component, and chose your indicator lights thus illuminating them.

Now whether the bad ground is still intermittent, or has been permanently fixed, only time will tell. Otherwise disconnect every reachable ground connection and clean clean clean.

I'd say do nothing... chances are that you will be fine for quite a while... perhaps another 5 years. As you probably know, some electronic components fail slowly, but most fail suddenly. In the slow-failure category are things like capacitors drying out, which can lead to timing errors that are only an issue under certain circumstances.

Random events such as a loose connection, a static discharge etc. can scramble the feeble little brains of the microprocessors in a car until the device is rebooted. If the problem gets to be repetitive, then pursue it further.

Most cars these days have some sort of theft protection which can render the car unstartable in an erratic way. My 2004 Saturn (and those of thousands of other Saturn customers) was awful in this respect, and the most effective solution for dealers who cared about customer service was to replace the ignition switch, and body control module, and one other piece, if I recall. Ordinarily, this would be considered poor troubleshooting practice (what is the likelihood that all three pieces have failed?) but dealers found that replacing one thing at a time often lead to call-backs. Creative dealers would write up the warranty claim in creative ways to get all three pieces covered -- unfortunate, because this can be construed as warranty fraud -- but when the manufacturer's product is so low in quality, they should end up paying the price, to get them think that it might make more sense to avoid producing garbage.

If I were a Saturn service manager, I would be sorely tempted, if I had a really unhappy customer, to replace anything vaguely related to the ignition switch -- including the entire wiring harness, the ECU, the engine, the starter motor, the transmission, and maybe the wheels and tires -- and of course the power steering unit, which on a Saturn is electrically boosted, and which on my car failed regularly. If I were a little old lady, this sort of thing could kill me. Fortunately, my son totalled our Saturn, so I am now driving an old Honda, which works much better.

But in any case, fear not -- it is very likely that the problem will not return -- and your Ford could not possibly be as trouble prone as my Saturn was. If it is, then Del's crossbow treatment would be recommended.

My experience tells me to do to things at that point. The alarm system or the ECM.

You can reboot the computer by just disconnecting the negative side of the battery, but I have also left the battery totally disconnected to absolutely discharge the ECM which I believe clears all memory and is sufficient for a real reboot. I have been told that by several mechanics, and it has never bitten me in the you know what.

It peaks my curiosity as to the whole "key in or out" and still supplying power to wipers, etc. That should be clear cut, power or no power at different key points, as if the interpretation of the key cylinder is faulty, which also makes me want to check the alarm.

Car alarms have a much shorter life span than we are told, and they can play tricks on you, like one time I couldn't start my car, I was getting power to the starter, lights, but it wouldn't start. What I did was slide it into neutral and the car started right up. If your car alarm screws up, that is one way to bypass it to start without splicing the two legs by the cutoff switch commonly found below the dashboard on the drivers side.

THERE IS A FACTORY DEFECT, IT IS CALLED " YOU OWN A FORD" sorry there is no cure but to buy a toyota!

If there are items still live with the ignition switch off, there are very few things that will cause this.

• An ignition switch that is failing. This will usually show itself as a switch without clearly defined electrical positions. By this I mean that if you were to move the ignition switch slightly, there would be dead spots, and live spots that should show up with the key on and moved slightly.
• Another cause would be a relay that is switched on by the ignition switch that does not return to the off position when the key is turned off. The cause of this is the contacts inside the relay welding themselves together.

Most relays are standardized in a vehicle. Check your car and see if the relays are the same. If so buy a spare, and keep it handy for when it happens again. When it does, remove the relays one at a time until you discover the offending one. I would think the relays with the higher power usage would be more prone to failing, but nothing is for sure.

If the relays are not the same, Just wait until it happens again and start pulling relays one at a time till you hit the correct one. Once you hit the correct one, the headlights and wipers should go off. At that point you will have temporally fixed your can until you buy a new relay. Good luck.

Hi BobC,

if your car has a data bus system, then although your comments are valid, they are also not the whole story either as parts of the car may be under local computer control and do strange things all on their own.

I had a 2001 VW Sharan that got the most dreadful problems that could only be cured by a complete "RESET" of all the processors, till they got the µcode fairly well sorted out.....I watched as they went around the car with the "Computer" talking to each unit and seeing what problems had been logged.....

My present Mitsubishi gets a problem about once in 18 months with the Tempomat not working, until the engine has been switched off and on again with at least a 10 second "off" phase......I have not even bothered them with a fix.....as I have a "fix"!

Thanks bob c, but I don't think the symptons point to a faulty relay. More likely a relay was held in by faulty operation of the electronics, as the problem disappeared when I did the Off/On trick, and everything as worked OK since (so far, anyway!)

Cheers.......Codey