Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Branches Northeast WNY folks, Erie& Niagara county+, please help!

Help folks, I know this isnt a Contour problem, but a Ford problem indeed. Can anyone around here lend me a hand with this, please???

Exhibit A: 1991 Ford Tempo, Yes go ahead and laugh...

Anyhow, last night my wife was going to the grocery store, and when she proceded to leave the store, and was halfway out into the busy highway, the lights in the car just died, but the car was still running. I had to come out and rescure her. Here is what does and doesnt work now.

The fuel pump primes and the car starts and runs fine! No alt light is on. Thank god.

WORKS: Trunk popper, air conditioner controls, (AC is broken but vents work), wipers and squirter, brake lights, turn signals, emergency flashers, brake lights.

DOESNT WORK: Headlights, horn, interior lights, trunk light, radio top dash lights, power door locks, lights on bottom of floor to light interior, dome light.


here is the crazy thing, i checked all the fuses and they were fine! I was experimenting around and i forgot i left the headlights on, and i tried to turn on the high beams, they go on!!!!! if u try to click them to stay on, nothing happens. Only if u hold the stalk in do they stay on and the little blue high beam indicator lights, if you pull back even harder on the turn signal stalk, EVERYTHING WORKS AGAIN!!!!! the radio, headlights, interior lights, power door locks, EVERYTHING!!! What the hell is going on here?? did i blow a module or one of those gigantic silver fuses??? Please help me, i'm not very good with this stuff and my wife needs the car to get back and forth. I also replaced the multifunction switch that is attached to the turn signal lever, jusr replaced the whole thing from a wrecked car, but still no dice! does the exact same thing. Maybe a wire fell out or something, or a crossed wire?

My wife thanks u in advance.....


Thanks so much!

Chris

Looks like we have quite a few people with the name Chris in this forum.
You might try posting this under troubleshooting. I'm sure Ray will have a few ideas for you.

Thanks! I will do that right now :P

Just figured that you'd have better luck there. I'm sure someone will give you suggestions shortly.

Hm...i had a problem like this with the 02 Focus, random things worked and other things didnt, nothing running on the same fuses or relays, no head or brake lights, but had running lights, no front wipers but the back one worked, no heater but the back defrost worked, locks worked but not windows, very random, after going to like 6 places a local shop blamed it on the gauge cluster and wanted $50, well worth it, they took the cluster out and played with it, i got the car back and everything worked

I see you got a bunch of responses.
Have you had any luck with fixing the problem yet?

I have some ideas, but nothing solid yet. I have a friend looking at it with me tonight. He SWEARS up and down its a fusable link. Thanks for thinking about me I'm gonna need all the help i can get with this one! :P

Hope you get it figured out soon!
Looks like those guys gave you some pretty solid leads.

Got it fixed!!

It was SORTA a fusable link, but it actually broke before the fusable part, LOL. One of the leads in the engine bay actually broke right before the link, broke the plastic jacket and the copper wire was corroded, almost looked like a copper penny with all that green corrosion. It ate the wire clean through. We put a new wire down, sans fuse, and all works again! We'll put in a new fusable connection some time later down the road

Thanks for thinking about me!

Glad everything is up and working again!