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Help! Missing Relays? (Pics)

S

Savior

CEG'er
Joined
Dec 6, 2002
Messages
306
Location
Honolulu, Hawaii
OK, so my ABS (Anti-Lock Braking System) has never worked. Eventually I just pulled the light bulb out from behind the dash and forgot about it. Recently, I noticed that my fog lights don't come on either. No idea how long this has been going on; they may never have worked.

So I got to hunting for fuses and relays to see if I could get my fog lights to work. Lo and behold, upon examining my Power Distribution Box under the hood next to the diagrams in my Owner's Manual, I come to discover that some fuses and a relay could be missing. Relay R1 (labeled "Daytime Running Lamps") is missing. I don't know what Daytime Running lamps are... Foglights? Or the yellow parking lights..?

Fuses 6 and 8 are gone as well. These are labeled "Foglamp" and "ABS System" in the manual. Strangely though, their red bases (the actual sockets that you plug the fuses directly into) are missing as well, leaving only black holes in their absence. See images below...

PDB-DiagramPhoto.jpg


PDB-FuseRelayChart.jpg


Relays2.jpg


So... Should I have the red bases in those fuse sockets? Where could I get them? And should I have a relay in that R1 relay socket? What rating/type of relay should be there? Can anyone peek under their hood and tell me if the last owner of this car might have broken or lost some of these things?

[EDIT] - And one more thing, I just noticed... Fuse 7, according to the chart, is "Not Used". But there is a yellow 20-amp fuse in there... What the heck..? Is that normal? Did someone pull a fuse and accidentally yank a red "dock" out along with it, and then plug it back into a dead, unused hole or something..? 0.o

[EDIT] - And another thing! Fuse 9, that big blue one (Far right side, third one down), is also listed as "Unused" in the manual's chart, but there is definitely a fuse in there... WTF is wrong with my car's fuse/relay setup? I'm so confused now. I thought I might have the wrong Owner's Manual, but it say "1998 Model Year" and SVT on the front. Can anyone clear this up?
 

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would be helpful if the pictures worked, refer to your manual to see what relays are and arent used.

Your contour book that came with your car will explain which fueses and relays are used and arent used; Ford will reuse the same power distro. box on multiple cars, which is why some fuse spots and relay spots listed in the manual will say "not used" its because another ford vehicle has the same power box but does use that spot for some feature that the contour doesnt have.
 
Stupid upload feature...

OK I uploaded them to PhotoBucket... They should work in the original post now.

As I said though, the manual is very misleading. And isn't it a weird coincidence that fuses 6 and 8 are missing, and my ABS system and fog lights don't work? Especially seeing as fuses 6 and 8 are listed in the manual as being for the ABS system and Fog Lights..? 0.o

Can someone (whose ABS system/fog lights definitely work) look at their setup and advise me here? This is really confusing.
 
well no us contour came with daytime running lights, I think it was just an option at best. so that is normal. that is why there is a metal jumper in the place of the relay. also the drl's turn the high beams on at half power when the ignition is in the "run" position.

as for the other items, are you sure your vehicle came equipped with abs and fog lamps? they where both options .... and the owners manual is goign to call them out even if your vehicle doesn't have them.

btw what do you have anyway?



you know what, your owners manual was printer wrong. if you look carfully the numbers are off. note that the #1 is up in the title block.

so fuse #5 is your fog lamp fuse and fuse 7 is for the abs.
 
Look closely, down in the fuse slots BELOW where the red "dock" as you call it goes. If there are not 2 metal terminals to receive the fuse's tips, slot did not come with a fuse there. The red inserts can be moved around, but you've got to have the terminals below them to provide juice or they will NEVER work. Take that left hand column in owner's manual and cut it out, slide everything down one and you will have it by my '98 SE manual. the #1 should line up with the 80 amp fuse, then 5 (15 amp) is foglamps and 7 (10 amp) is ABS as the man says. My manual was misprinted also, you can hold page up to the light and see the misprint, however they caught it and hand glued a revision page over the original. Someone must have missed correcting yours.
 
BrApple said:
...as for the other items, are you sure your vehicle came equipped with abs and fog lamps? they where both options .... and the owners manual is goign to call them out even if your vehicle doesn't have them.

btw what do you have anyway?



you know what, your owners manual was printer wrong. if you look carfully the numbers are off. note that the #1 is up in the title block.

so fuse #5 is your fog lamp fuse and fuse 7 is for the abs.
Click to expand...

Holy crap. That explains a lot, but still not why my fog lights and ABS don't work. I have a 1998.0 E0 SVT. physically has fog lamps,and I don't thnk the ABS light in the dash would light up if it didn't come equipped with that system... right? 0.o

And also, there are indeed little metal contacts down inside the fuse holes.

What do these things allude to?
 
I have a 2000 Contour and it is a U.S. car that came with daytime running lights. It has a relay where you have a "metal jumper". This is a classic example of the previous owner(s) "working" on their car.
 
BrApple said:
you know what, your owners manual was printer wrong. if you look carfully the numbers are off. note that the #1 is up in the title block.

so fuse #5 is your fog lamp fuse and fuse 7 is for the abs.
Click to expand...

My manual is printed incorrectly also!!! Although my numbers line up as they should, but I noticed I blew a fuse didn't have any of the same amp, looked in the manual, saw a fuse in a "unused" position, pulled, put it where I needed it, Airbag light came on. Way to go proofreaders:nonono:
 
If there are metal contacts there, that position should be able to be used. The contacts are wired underneath into rest of harness. Does that mean rest of wiring is there? Not necessarily. If foglight fuse missing, special fog portion of headlight switch might not be there either (need different switch). Are the foglamps factory or somebody's add-on? If factory part, you should have viable wiring in fusebox that would work.
 
BrApple said:
since he has an svt the fog lamps are factory ...
Click to expand...


So... In light of this fact, and the fact that I was reading my mis-printed manual and taking it as gospel (meaning my fuses seem to actually be present and in their correct locations, after the manual is corrected), this means that all the wiring and fuses would most likely be in order, right?

Time to check the fog lamps themselves. I didn't think they burned out that easily. :(

Oh well, if they're burned out I'm gonna buy some sweet new ones with a blue hue to them, to match my new headlight-bulbs. I'll report back when I get this figured out.
 
yes I would say that the wiring and fuses are in order. if the fuse was bad for the fog lamps they wouldn't work and your battery light would be on and the alternator wouldn't be charging the battery.
 
Savior said:
Oh well, if they're burned out I'm gonna buy some sweet new ones with a blue hue to them, to match my new headlight-bulbs. I'll report back when I get this figured out.
Click to expand...

:rolleyes: Yea another ricer. Blue coating on bulbs cut light output by a significant amount. Contours already suffer from low light output as it is.
 
As far as the blue lighting, I see it more in BMWs, which is the look I was going for. But if that would look tacky, I could get those white-light Sylvannia Silverstars for headlights instead, but what would be some nice foglights to match?

In any case, I checked all my fuses and relays using my owner's manual and my Haines manual; they are all good. I pulled the foglamp bulbs themselves and checked them; they are not burned out, they are fine. So I turned on my headlights, pulled a foglamp bulb out of its socket, and used my voltmeter to test the voltage running to the bulb sockets; They are recieving no power whatsoever.

If all the fuses are good, and the bulbs are good, what other points of failure are there? What about the headlight switch, or a relay in there? I couldn't find any diagrams or info on this... Could it be the culprit? How would I go about finding out?
 
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