Buzzing sound

[telboy68]

I was driving around and parked up, when I returned I tried to start my 2003 Expedition and it would not start. It would not even crank. The mileage and compass readings where just showing -------------. aslo there was a buzzing sound coming from the fuse box located on the passenger side. I got it towed home and took a closer look, my findings so far are the buzzing is caused by fuse number 102 which says its for the ignition switch / starter solenoid. when i remove it the buzzing stops but there are no lights on the dashboard. when I put it back in the buzzzing is back the lights in the instrument panel work but it will not turn over. I tried replacing the fuse but nothing changes, I pulled the carpets up and noticed there was some water under the carpet, in the well but there was no trace of water in or around the fuse box, i heard that the 2003 can have a windshield leak, it rained here pretty bad about 3 days ago, at the moment i have a hairdryer blowing in there to dry it all out. Any ideas?

 

[ELVATO]

Check your PCM relay (R02 I think). If the center prong has burnt plastic around it, you'll need to replace the entire fuse box. Search, there's a couple threads on this.

 

[telboy68]

Yup, the fuse didn't show any signs of melting but it did smell. I removed the fuse box and opened it up. Tee prongs inside the fuse box showed sign of abnormality so looks like I will have to replace the fuse box. Any ideas where the best place to buy these are? Will it just be the board inside or the whole fuse box?

 

[ELVATO]

The whole fuse box. Search the forum for the part number, there are 2 threads (mine and someone else's) on this issue. The other person had a nice walkthrough as well

Try calling around. Tascaparts.com is usually a decently cheap place as far as OEM parts are concerned.

Also, you said the fuse showed no signs of melting. Did you mean the relay? If you look in your manual, the PCM relay will be relay R203 (sorry, earlier I told you the wrong one). There are 3 half relays (the skinny ones), R203 will the the one that's a different orientation from the fog and trailer tow lamp relays. Look in page 251 and 258 in your manual.

The PCM relay will probably have melted plastic around one of the middle prongs. You could technically swap the fog light relay over to the PCM relay. That's what I had to do to get it running again. I bought a couple spare relays, and kept on driving. It melted 2 more relays, then it just shut off on me one day while driving, and swapping in a new relay didn't work.

 

[wild duck]

Same thing happened to me. The PCM relay went bad. Replaced relay and truck starts fine. Before I replaced relay I completely dismantled fuse panel and looked at the circuit board. There were no problems with board just a small melted spot in plastic near where the pin touches . Hope this helps

 

[scoot0073]

The whole fuse box. Search the forum for the part number, there are 2 threads (mine and someone else's) on this issue. The other person had a nice walkthrough as well

Try calling around. Tascaparts.com is usually a decently cheap place as far as OEM parts are concerned.

Also, you said the fuse showed no signs of melting. Did you mean the relay? If you look in your manual, the PCM relay will be relay R203 (sorry, earlier I told you the wrong one). There are 3 half relays (the skinny ones), R203 will the the one that's a different orientation from the fog and trailer tow lamp relays. Look in page 251 and 258 in your manual.

The PCM relay will probably have melted plastic around one of the middle prongs. You could technically swap the fog light relay over to the PCM relay. That's what I had to do to get it running again. I bought a couple spare relays, and kept on driving. It melted 2 more relays, then it just shut off on me one day while driving, and swapping in a new relay didn't work.

Thank you I did this this morning pulled out 203 and no signs of melting or lose prongs or coloration.i then pull the middle one which is the fog lights and put it in the 203 location and Expedition starts..
Does this mean I still need to replace pcm box or could it mean jus the relay/fuse went bad..??
Thanks again

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