New to Fords, a few interesting electrical quirks and advice needed

[Chris Mazzella]

Hello everyone. I just recently acquired my first Ford, let alone my first high mileage vehicle. It was honestly a complete spur of the moment purchase where I stumbled across it and said why not. She's a 2000 XLT, with the 5.4. Currently has 176,500 miles. My first intentions were to just use it as a beater to keep miles off a brand new car I just bought, but I'm kind of falling in love with this old thing and want to give it the best I can. It was a bit of a mess when I got it, but I have slowly been going through it and getting everything sorted. The biggest issue was the windshield, which was pouring water in and causing all kinds of electrical issues. I took the GEM out, cleaned everything, sorted all the connections, and everything has been working as it should after putting a new windshield in. My biggest annoyance now is that my overhead console display does not work, the rear wiper will not work, and the running board lights and overhead console dome lights will not come on when the door is opened. The overhead console lights DO work if you push the buttons, but will not work with the doors. I checked the dimmer switch, etc. I pulled all of the fuses under the hood, and under the dash on the main fuse box last night, and they all seem fine. I guess I just wanted to see if there was anything else you guys might think could be the culprit of this, besides an issue with the GEM itself. I know this is entirely possible, especially after it has seen so much water. But before I go that route, I just wanted to make sure I had checked everywhere else. Any ideas?

 

[Ulver]

Welcome to the club! I have a 2001 4.6 that I've been slowly repairing and bringing back into top shape from a previous owner who didn't take much care of it. Some repairs of which you've probably done.

For the overhead console display, I made a post here that will help you. It's a very simple fix, actually. https://www.expeditionforum.com/posts/354093/

The windshield wiper motor is a common problem that these older vehicles have. Do a bit of diagnostic procedures.. But I'm betting it's the motor that needs to be replaced.

I haven't run into any of the other problems you have, but if you use the search bar at the top right of the forum page you will probably find it. Might just be a bad ground. Best of luck.

 

[Chris Mazzella]

Welcome to the club! I have a 2001 4.6 that I've been slowly repairing and bringing back into top shape from a previous owner who didn't take much care of it. Some repairs of which you've probably done.

For the overhead console display, I made a post here that will help you. It's a very simple fix, actually. https://www.expeditionforum.com/posts/354093/

The windshield wiper motor is a common problem that these older vehicles have. Do a bit of diagnostic procedures.. But I'm betting it's the motor that needs to be replaced.

I haven't run into any of the other problems you have, but if you use the search bar at the top right of the forum page you will probably find it. Might just be a bad ground. Best of luck.

Thank you for your feedback! It has been a bit of a slow project for me. Replaced the rear differential cover and flushed the fluid out of there, new tires, flushed the coolant 4 times before it actually came clean. When I got it, it was only running on 5 cylinders. New plugs and coil packs fixed that. Replaced a few bad light sockets, and a new fuel cap and PCV valve fixed the check engine light. all in all, including buying it, and the cost of all repairs so far i'm into this thing for about 1700 bucks. runs fantastic now, and sounds super healthy. The exhaust system was pretty well shot, so I just cut it off and am running open pipe on it now. Next is brakes, and fixing this little quirks

 

[stamp11127]

Electrical 101: You can't see the electrons flowing but you can see the results of it. Pulling fuses is a waste of time - can you tell if they are powered by doing so? If you can without any tools you will be the only one on the planet that can!
Read the stickys in the electrical section on how to troubleshoot electrical, then you will be able to properly diagnose the electrical issues.

FYI - open pipes down here = redneck and kills engine performance from lack of back pressure and engine not knowing how the fuel trims are working if you removed the cats also.

Electrical 102: When something doesn't work it usually is from: lack of power, lack of a ground or just burned up.

 

[Killer Ride]

Some of what you describe may be the gem module but some of it may be from the door ajar switch located in each lock on the vehicle

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[Plati]

sometimes the rear wiper bushing through the glass just needs to be cleaned & lubed

does it move by hand easily when you pop the glass & open it a bit?

 

[Chris Mazzella]

Thanks for the reply's you guys. I'll have to go through the sticky section and see what I can find. I'm sure it's just a matter of tracing the problems back to some wiring/ground issues as you said. As for the rear wiper motor, it does seem pretty stiff. Maybe I can take it apart, try and lubricate things and see if it fixes it. If not, I can get a new one for like 40 dollars. As far as the exhaust goes, to be honest, I just can't justify putting a new system on it. One day I may, but my first priority is to just get all of the little issues/quirks settled first. I have to put brakes on it, and several bushings and shocks, so that is my first priority. I guess this is just one of those work on it slowly while daily driving it things. This past weekend I put about 400 miles on it, all over long island and sitting in stop and go traffic in the 100-degree heat we have been having here and it preformed great. I averaged about 12.5 mpg, so I can't really complain

 

[Chris Mazzella]

Hey everybody. I just figured I’d give you an update. I fixed the running board lights. The previous owner had actually cut all the wires to them, I guess as an attempt to make the truck driveable without killing the battery instead of actually fixing the issues with the GEM

 

[Ulver]

Hey everybody. I just figured I’d give you an update. I fixed the running board lights. The previous owner had actually cut all the wires to them, I guess as an attempt to make the truck driveable without killing the battery instead of actually fixing the issues with the GEM

Have you figured out the issue with your rear wiper? I'm doing some digging today with mine, so I'll let you know if I find anything worth a read.

 

[Ulver]

Rear wiper "fix". Turns out I had a blown fuse. (Picture attached) I replaced the broken fuse with an unused one and now it works perfectly. Now I have to see why that fuse was blown...