My car is a 1999 Contour SE, V6, 60,000 miles, ATX.
Last 3 weekends, I have been trying to replace the impeller of my old water pump with a metal one. Just preventative maintenance. The car was running fine. Took out the battery to get some room to work. After removing the old impeller (white, still in good shape), I ran into a great deal of trouble cleaning off the old gasket material. Ended up removing the entire water pump so I could clean it up on the workbench, but because the hose clamps were so inaccessible, I ended up sawing one of the hoses off to remove the entire water pump. What a mess, bad decision, but this is not the problem.
Anyway, when I finally got things back together, and hooked the battery back up, the car wouldn’t start. Dead. Starter wouldn’t crank. (I have had alternator problems in the past, but the engine has never given me any problems, and the car has always started on the first try.)
I have done something seriously wrong, but I can’t figure out what I might have done or what I need to do to fix it. Looking for some ideas. I do not want to tow it to the dealership.
Here’s what I can tell you. The symptoms are a little different each time I connect the battery and try to start it, but basically here is what I see.
1) The starter does not turn over at all. Ever.
2) The LED on the dashboard (PATS light?) almost always is flashing continuously.
3) The front amber turn lights flash slowly on and off.
4) Once in a while, some of the indicator lights come on briefly, but usually they do not.
5) Once, I heard a continuous chattering noise coming from the dashboard. Went away after I disconnected the battery again.
6) I’ve tried both of my keys, but neither works.
7) I’ve checked all of the smaller fuses in the fuse box but I haven’t found any blown. Some of the bigger fuses, I don’t know what to look at, so I don’t know if those are blown or not.
8) My battery charger indicates the battery is fully charged, and the starting system was working fine before the water pump replacement.
The only really irregular thing I did was that, that first weekend, I had the water pump out but had to move the car to close the garage door. The car was in Park and wouldn’t move, so I reconnected the battery and turned the key to get the car out of park. I was following the CEG HOWTO and had performed this step as part of the water pump replacement: “If you have an ATX, remove the plug and cable from the top of the tranny and set it out of the way to keep it dry.” I don’t know if this is important, but I am sure I forgot to reconnect this when I re-connected the battery. Maybe this is my problem, I don’t know. But I believe this is when I started to see the problem.
I have disconnected my battery countless times in the past and never had any problems like this.
I have read some of the threads dealing with PATS, but I just don’t see the connection between what I did and how PATS might have been disabled.
Any ideas?
Thanks.
Last 3 weekends, I have been trying to replace the impeller of my old water pump with a metal one. Just preventative maintenance. The car was running fine. Took out the battery to get some room to work. After removing the old impeller (white, still in good shape), I ran into a great deal of trouble cleaning off the old gasket material. Ended up removing the entire water pump so I could clean it up on the workbench, but because the hose clamps were so inaccessible, I ended up sawing one of the hoses off to remove the entire water pump. What a mess, bad decision, but this is not the problem.
Anyway, when I finally got things back together, and hooked the battery back up, the car wouldn’t start. Dead. Starter wouldn’t crank. (I have had alternator problems in the past, but the engine has never given me any problems, and the car has always started on the first try.)
I have done something seriously wrong, but I can’t figure out what I might have done or what I need to do to fix it. Looking for some ideas. I do not want to tow it to the dealership.
Here’s what I can tell you. The symptoms are a little different each time I connect the battery and try to start it, but basically here is what I see.
1) The starter does not turn over at all. Ever.
2) The LED on the dashboard (PATS light?) almost always is flashing continuously.
3) The front amber turn lights flash slowly on and off.
4) Once in a while, some of the indicator lights come on briefly, but usually they do not.
5) Once, I heard a continuous chattering noise coming from the dashboard. Went away after I disconnected the battery again.
6) I’ve tried both of my keys, but neither works.
7) I’ve checked all of the smaller fuses in the fuse box but I haven’t found any blown. Some of the bigger fuses, I don’t know what to look at, so I don’t know if those are blown or not.
8) My battery charger indicates the battery is fully charged, and the starting system was working fine before the water pump replacement.
The only really irregular thing I did was that, that first weekend, I had the water pump out but had to move the car to close the garage door. The car was in Park and wouldn’t move, so I reconnected the battery and turned the key to get the car out of park. I was following the CEG HOWTO and had performed this step as part of the water pump replacement: “If you have an ATX, remove the plug and cable from the top of the tranny and set it out of the way to keep it dry.” I don’t know if this is important, but I am sure I forgot to reconnect this when I re-connected the battery. Maybe this is my problem, I don’t know. But I believe this is when I started to see the problem.
I have disconnected my battery countless times in the past and never had any problems like this.
I have read some of the threads dealing with PATS, but I just don’t see the connection between what I did and how PATS might have been disabled.
Any ideas?
Thanks.