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killed a buzz

eljefino

New CEG'er
Joined
Feb 1, 2008
Messages
7
97 contour 2.0 was humming/buzzing at me after I shut the key off. Like a wall wart. Felt all kinds of junk under the hood but couldn't feel the vibrations. Also was certainly draining the battery.

For a while I was worried it was a bad diode in the alternator, but sound this faint is hard to pinpoint with my rock n roll ears.

This car uses a relay (#11, underhood fusebox) on the ignition key outputs to run all the PCM controlled whozits. This relay was stuck closed, and that hum was actually coming from the ignition module. (Hard to pinpoint noises under the hood)

There is some other ignition key output that's also vital for running, perhaps the fuel pump, so the car still shut off when I turned the key off. When I restarted though it would idle low and sputter for a second.

As I lifted the relay it came apart on me showing its pretty copper coil innards and oozed a couple drops of oil. Stuck the horn relay in its place and all is well.

Oddly, I put this relay in the horn position (and the horn works, so perhaps I smacked some new life into the relay), so if my car starts making noise, darn it, I'm going to hear about it.
grin2.gif


Just thought I'd throw this out there if someone else ever has this problem.
 
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