Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Power Distribution box under hood fuse #9

98 contour with 98000 miles (4 cyl). Stop running while the wife was driving it down the road and had a shop find a blown fuse in the power distribution box under the hood. He did not have the fuse so he put in a circuit breaker. Well as you might expect it ran for a day or two and now the circuit breaker is blowing. When I look in the owners guide it shows that fuse # 9 is "not used". Anybody got any ideas what this fuse is protecting and maybe a cure.

It goes to the PCM module. Looks like either your module is toast or a wire with cracked/missing insulation.

If it is the PCM, a new one from Ford is about $250. If you can find a good one at a junkyard it will run about $10 around. I can't find any Contours/Mystique at any of the yards around here though. Once you have the module, you'll have to take it to a Ford dealer to have them reprogram it for your car. That runs about $75 here.

rifter,
Thanks for the great information!! The car will start after the circuit breaker resets and at times it does not blow again right away. Do you think if the PCM was causing this type of trouble it would throw a code?

On my Contour, Fuse 6 and 11 are PCM, Fuse 9 is Fuel Pump. 15AMP. If the circuit breaker is under sized, it will trip and you car will stop. I have a '99, but the fuses should be similar.

Richard,
The plot thickens. My fuse #6 is Fog Lamps and fuse #11 is the ignition switch and there is no fuse listed for a "PCM" there is one for the EEC module # 10 and then # 12 is for the EEC ignition module(memory) and #5 is for the ignition and the EEC module. ??????? They guy who "fixed the car" is stumped and it looks like I my have to take it to the FORD $hop. I hate to do that.

Don't know if this will help any, but here goes. . .

If you are looking up the fuses in the owner's manual you may have to be careful. In my case the chart for the power distribution box is pretty messed up. The numbers don't line up with the corresponding fuses, i.e. they are printed wrong on the page. In fact, the number one is actually printed on top of the heading at the top of the column. Its as if the spacing between the numbers and the spacing between the fuse descriptions does not match. I was confused for the longest time when I went to pull fuses 4 & 11 to reset the memory since 4 & 11 weren't what was listed in my book! You may have to go through and renumber them.

Again, I don't know how common this is, but I just thought I'd give you a heads-up.

Alan,
May the Camel of Love lick your sister!! Mine is the same way!!!!!!!! I thought at first it wasnt but then I looked at the number 1 and it is on top of the heading at the top of the column just like you described. So now my #9 instead of being "not used" is the EEC fuse. So anybody gotta any clues why this fuse would blow intermittently and the EEC not show a code? THANKS ALAN!!!

Believe it or not, there was a recall on that owners manual. It was handled by mail. The recall provided new pages for the owners manual to paste over the pages with the incorrect fuse information. I'll bet that the dealer mixed up the manuals so you got one ment for another car and that other owner got the revised pages.

You can download a new owners manual from the Ford web site.

My Car didn't have a manual (Bought car used in December 2001). I ordered one from Helms. So i guess it's the most recent. The downloaded version (i used before I received the printed one) matches my book, and I reset the PCM once to clear a CEL and that was 6 and 11. Either your car is different or something else is up. Anyway, my fuse 9 is 15 amp and the plastic cover under the hood says 15 amp. There are spares in the center column of fuses. Make sure the curcuit breaker is the correct amps, in fact, pick up a correct amp fuse (pick up a couple) and replace it. If it still blows, you have a short or overload. If not, it could just be an incorrectly rated circuit breaker or a bad breaker too. Fuses are cheap, so double check before you tear the car apart or replace parts because of a bad circuit breaker or fuse.