Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Smoke billowing from underhood....

My girlfriend's '95 2.5 SE ATX is having some really strange electrical issues. The battery in her car is draining when the car sits for a short period of time. I had to jump her (car ) twice. I went out to jump it again to try to figure out where the drain was coming from, and when I hooked up the cables, smoke started billowing from under the hood. It was coming from the wiring harness that goes through the firewall just behind the brake booster. It is visually melting. Oh, and yes the cables were hooked up the right way. I tried again to make sure. Anybody seen this before? I know there is a recall on the wiring harness. Does this sound like the problem? Also, door locks/keyless entry has been intermittently working and the ABS/Traction Control isn't working. I am not sure if these are related or not.

Thanks,

-Jeremy

I believe it is called parasitic drain, when there is a small drain on the battery. That keeps killing it after it sits for so long.

First thing I would do is get a friend with you of course, and close yourself in the trunk. Is the trunk light out like it is suppoused to be?
Secondly all your dome lights are off correct, those are something to check to.

It sounds like there may be a 12v wire which has rubbed through the insulation and is shorting to ground. Maybe the grommet is broken. IMO, you need to look carefully at this section of the harness with the battery disconnected to find the short. If it was visibly melting, you have the very real possibility of a fire. You may be well advised to take it to an auto electrical shop and have them check it out. Have it towed there of course. Very dangerous situation you described.

My .02
Mike

I've checked all the basic electrical accessories (trunk light, underhood light, defroster, radio, visor lights, etc.) and they all seem fine. It is a parisic drain, but it discharges pretty quickly, and this latest development (smoking harness) leads me to believe it is a short. I am at college right now and have next to no tools available. I don't want to start cutting and splicing in the harness, without checking on the possiblilty of it being covered under warranty first. I am also not sure if the short could be somewhere else, and is causing the wire to heat up?

Brought the girlfriend's car into the Ford dealer to check on the wire harness service bulletin. They will replace the entire vehicle wire harness free of charge!! Car has 95k and it covers up to 100k. If anybody else is having issues I would highly recommend getting them checked out before your car turns 100k. Best part is that we have a '04 F150 Supercrew 4x4 as a loaner for a week while the car is in the shop!

it's not the entire vehicle harness, just select harnesses in the engine compartment, based on what the vehicle is equipped with. Here's a tip - is you're going to get the wiring recall done, ask to talk to the tech who will be diong the work. Offer to tip him because the job is a real [censored]. make it clear that you want the job done right and are willing to pay extra for it. Then pay him $100. That will ofset his lost time and ensure that you'll get a good job done. Believe me, the $100 will be worth it - avioding having to bring it back to the dealer over and over to have the wiring fixed where it isn't installed properly. The 2.5L with abs and auto transmission only pays about 7.7 hours, but it easily takes twice that if you follow the instructions. There are shortcuts that we do, but they can result in an unsatisfactory repair down the road... Just a suggestion.


If you let the tech know that you're on his side, and that you know it is a tough car to work on (especially under warranty) and you offer some cash to grease the wheels, you'll be very happy with the results...

Thanks for the tip, I read the service bulletin and I thought that 7.7 hours seemed a little short. The manager of the service department told me they were replacing the entire vehicle wire harness. Maybe there was a misunderstanding, but he said they would have to tear the dash and entire car apart. The wire in question is located behind the brake booster, real close to the firewall. I scanned over the service bullitin, and didn't notice that part of the harness, which worried me a little as to whether it would be covered or not. There were many diagrams and it would have been easy to overlook though. In any event, we should be getting the car back soon, so hopefully everything works out fine and thanks for the advice.