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no heater blower or a/c,

A

amc49

Hard-core CEG'er
Joined
May 21, 2008
Messages
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Ran into a problem where heater blower just quit, also a/c clutch wouldn't engage. After checking all fuses, switches, resistor pak (I'm aware of the recall), blower motor, all work. Got 12V power in several locations where needed, but when load plugged in, nothing works. Traced it down to a large red power lead going into the passenger compartment fusebox. It melted end of that lead and the corner of fusebox. When going through junkyard to get a new fusebox and several inches of lead, noticed that many other '98-'99 Contours had the problem in varying degrees, the wire was discolored with plastic insulation beginning to melt. Anybody else seen this??
 
I had this problem with my mystique. I took my fuse box apart and soldered the red wire directly to the metal bus in the box.
 
Same Problem

Same Problem

Hello,

I had this same problem last year and now again this year. Keep going to junk yard getting new wires/plugs pisses me off. Was this a recall? I seen same thing at junk yard with others also.

Mine is 98 ford contour fuse box on drivers side though but it's green and red wires on plug correct?
 
Yup, that be the one.........for the record, the above mentioned recall covered the resistor pak itself, melting and possibly catching surrounding plastic on fire.
 
My car has the melting blower wire on the fuse box for the third time. I just dropped it off at my mechanic. Would you think it's the resistor pak causing the melting? I think the blower was replaced the last time this happened (year ago).
 
Melted wires are usually caused by a loose or corroded connection. This in turn causes the wire to get hotter than normal melting the wire. If the resistor pack or such was bad it would simply blow the fuse and not melt any wires.
 
Resistor pak can melt the plastic plate it's mounted on, that's what caused the fires and recall. The blower wire in fusebox goes to a spade plug connector that I believe has too small a cross section of metal, as a result the connection itself overheats, rather than the larger cross section wire. They needed to make that metal part bigger, but of course that would have cost them another, say, 5 cents? Ford did this several times with radiator fan motor connectors too. Ford dealership I went to reported a bonanza worth of wire pigtail sales there at $12 each. Lots of Tempos lost radiator fans because of it. Keep an eye on your Contour/Mystique headlight switch too, some of those had same type of overheating problem. Mine has been hot on one terminal, copper discolored, but no surrounding plastic deformed yet. It's probably coming in the future. Must be a problem, because most switches in junkyard cars are missing, that tells you something...........
 
ctmystique said:
Melted wires are usually caused by a loose or corroded connection. This in turn causes the wire to get hotter than normal melting the wire. If the resistor pack or such was bad it would simply blow the fuse and not melt any wires.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I just read on an old thread that someone else had the same problem so I think he jumped it around the fuse box with 10 gauge wiring and used a 30 amp fuse.

I'm guessing that it melts at the weakest link in the wiring (most resistance).
 
amc49 said:
Resistor pak can melt the plastic plate it's mounted on, that's what caused the fires and recall. The blower wire in fusebox goes to a spade plug connector that I believe has too small a cross section of metal, as a result the connection itself overheats, rather than the larger cross section wire. They needed to make that metal part bigger, but of course that would have cost them another, say, 5 cents? Ford did this several times with radiator fan motor connectors too. Ford dealership I went to reported a bonanza worth of wire pigtail sales there at $12 each. Lots of Tempos lost radiator fans because of it. Keep an eye on your Contour/Mystique headlight switch too, some of those had same type of overheating problem. Mine has been hot on one terminal, copper discolored, but no surrounding plastic deformed yet. It's probably coming in the future. Must be a problem, because most switches in junkyard cars are missing, that tells you something...........
Click to expand...


Thanks, but wouldn't a bad switch cause melted wiring somewhere other than the blower connection at the fuse box under the dash?
 
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