Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General many wiring harness questions - Zetec

My 1995 contour w/zetec has 99,500+ miles on it. I recently became aware of wiring harness issue. From what I could see with my own unprofessional inspection of wiring under the hood it all seems fine.

I live in a relatively cool climate (Milwaukee area). I'd be interested in hearing about harness condition/problems from other high mileage zetec owners in cooler climates. Are we likely to be okay with the original equipment?

Just out of curiosity or for future reference, does anyone know for an out of warranty Zetec what the cost to replace the two harnesses is?

If I take it to Ford dealer will they make any effort to inspect beyond what I did by just looking at what I could see? What about going to an independent shop and perhaps paying them for 1/2 labor or something like that...what might I be able to have them inspect?

What I could see was wires to fuel injectors looked fine and wires to what I think is temp sensor looked fine except that I did notice some cracking of the plastic sheath that encloses several wires around the wires. The sheath is also very brittle it cracked more when I moved it a little. I assume that this sheath is not considered to be a problem??? The insulation on the wires themselves looked fine.

Any other ideas on where to look? Someone had suggested removing the intake...does that mean air intake? What would I see by doing that?

The termperature sensor connector is a round 2-position connector with locking tabs on either side. It's on the side of the engine near the coil pack (I think). The locking tabs don't actually lock so you can tug on the connector and it'll come off the temperature sensor. It's the same style of connector used for the intake air temperature sensor on the '95 V6 models (don't know about the Zetec, the IAT was already missing when I got to it)

Once you find this connector, pull the rubber insert over the wires and look inside. The harness I removed from the Zetec in the wrecking yard only had cracking at this connector, so I assume that's where it starts.

Brian

By the way, removing the intake only applies to the Duratec--there is no wiring underneath the intake on the Zetec.

When I get home I'll look at the harness I got and describe the connector some more + the wire colors.

Brian

Take a look here:




This killed the car in the middle of rush hour on the way to get the thing replaced. I recommend removing the battery and checking these wires as they run under it and rub against the body.

Thanks guys.

Brian the thing I think was temp sensor was toward side of the engine that connects to trans, kind of below the rectangular black plastic box that is ducted to the air intake. Not the one with the air filter in it but the other one that seems to be permanently sealed. It was below that sealed box or the duct from it. It was also near what I thought was distributor or whatever the thing that does that job is called today (coil pack???). Remember I am an idiot on this stuff...so I don't know what a coil pack looks like.

Lee it looks like those wires of yours were in some kind of sheath too. Almost looks like wires were bad even though sheath was still there...is that the case? Thanks for the tip I'll see if I can look there this weekend...were those covered on this pseudo-recall?

I'm going to tell my daughter, who is using the 95, to not go over 99,900 miles until I get a chance to check all that can be checked or decide if I should take it somewhere to be checked.