Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Crappy Wires Under the Hood

I took my 97 Contour in for Recall work back 6-8 months ago and had them do everything on the list. They checked over the wiring harnesses and said that everything looked fine with them.

I knew that they just didn't want to replace everything. So about a months and a half later the car started acting up and the battery wouldn't keep a charge. I put a new one in it and then looked at the positive battery terminal leads while it was out. It had no sheilding on it and was grounding out on the car. I removed it and took the wiring harness to the dealer and showed it to them. They agreed they didn't look the car over well enough and did the whole recall to the car. It runs like a top now, but there are still other wiring harnesses that aren't in very good shape under there. Like the IAT Connector, MAF, and main harness.

By the way, there are several grades of automotive primary wire.

GPT (PVC) which has a temperature rating of -40c to 80c

SXL/GXL/TXL (polyethylene) have a temperature rating of -51c to 125c

I'm guessing that someone used cheaper GPT wire instead of the SXL/GXL/TXL wire that they were supposed to use.

If anyone intends to attempt to repair their harness, only use the SXL/GXL/TXL wire, NOT the GPT wire.

http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Speedway/1080/selectingwire.html is where I got this info.

Brian

There is a recall for this concern. I have attached the cover sheet below:

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OWNER NOTIFICATION PROGRAM
99M03 Certain 1995-1997 Contour and Mystique vehicles - Under Hood Wire Harness - Additional Coverage.

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October, 1999

To:
All Ford and Lincoln-Mercury Dealers

Subject:
Owner Notification Program 99M03 - Certain 1995-1997 Contour and Mystique vehicles - Under Hood Wire Harness - Additional Coverage.

OASIS:

Yes

OWNER LIST:

Yes

PARTS RETURN:

No

PROGRAM TERMS:

This program provides extended coverage on certain under hood wire harnesses through 10 years or 100,000 miles which ever occurs first, from the original warranty start date.

AFFECTED VEHICLES

Certain 1995 - 1997 Contour and Mystique vehicles built from Job #1 1995 through Model Year End 1997.

REASON FOR RECALL

Under ambient factors of high temperature and high humidity, certain 1995 - 1997 Contour and Mystique vehicles may be susceptible to the wiring insulation becoming brittle and cracking on certain engine compartment wiring harnesses.

These harnesses deliver electrical power to the engine and its cooling and control systems, the climate control, and other power distribution systems. If wire harness insulation cracking is found during the additional warranty period, the under hood wire harnesses are to be replaced at no charge to the customer.

SERVICE ACTION

Additional Warranty Coverage

Effective immediately, Ford is providing additional coverage for the replacement of the under hood wire harnesses on these vehicles for a period of 10 years or 100,000 miles, which ever occurs first, from the original warranty start date. This coverage exceeds the provisions of the original component warranty coverage on the affected vehicles and is automatically transferred to subsequent owners at no charge. This additional coverage does not include normal service diagnostic or repair charges unrelated to wire harness brittleness and cracking. After this additional coverage has expired, wire harness replacements will be at the expense of the vehicle owner.

QUESTIONS?

Claims Information 1-800-423-8851

Other Recall Questions 1-800-325-5621

Attachments

Attachment I
Administrative Information
Refund Codes
Attachment II
Labor Allowances
Parts Ordering Information
Attachment III
Technical Information
Attachment III (cont.)
Technical Information

Here is an excerpt for the visual inspection, less the illustrations, for your own 'honesty check' of the dealer's inspection (note the bold text especially):

WIRING HARNESS EVALUATION

VISUAL INSPECTION

The purpose of this inspection is to visually identify degrading in the wiring insulation of certain vehicle components.

1. To visually identify wiring degradation See Figure 1, noting the following characteristics:
* Wire insulation material is brittle.
* Wire insulation has continuous cracks.
* Cracks in wire insulation are of random orientation.
* Wiring insulation is missing (broken away).

2. To visually identify a vehicle with wiring degradation, check component wires at locations designated by circles in Figures 2 through 4. Also check battery positive cable (not illustrated).
* If any wire of any component shows signs of wiring degradation, proceed to “Service Procedure.”
* If there is no visual signs of wiring degradation, proceed to “Electronic Inspection.”

How the heck are they going to see the wiring under the intake manifold that's cracking, unless they take the intake manifold off? Even then, only some of the wire is defective--only the green wires (base color green with stripes of various colors) are cracking on my engine harness, all the others appear fine (making it much easier to think about just replacing the bad wires, which are all green).

Oddly enough, all of the base color green wires are connected to the same place, 12V, so even if they touch it won't hurt anything.

Here's what I intend to do:

1)Remove engine harness from engine.

2)Crack off all the split-loom tubing (it's very brittle) to expose all of the wiring.

3)Doing one wire at a time, cut the defective wires from their connectors, leaving 1" of bare wire sticking out of the connector.

[Alternatively, if you have a cooperative dealer, they have repair terminals with 4" of wire attached, they come in a kit of about 150 different types of terminals, but they can order them in bags of 10 with the part number which should be listed somewhere on the kit, if not see TSB 99-2-2 which lists the part number of every terminal in the kit]

4)Taking the new green wire of the proper rating/gauge, slip a 1.5" piece of 1/4" heatshrink tubing with waterproof wax (Digi-Key sells this)over the new wire.

5)Solder the new wire to the 1" bare wire.

6)Slide the heatshrink tubing over the joint and the bare wire, butting it against the connector seal.

7)Shrink the tubing with the soldering iron.

8)Repeat for the other end.

9)Wrap the harness in cold-shrink tape (also available from Digi-Key), don't forget to wrap the tape around the clips that secure the harness to the bolts on the engine, or find some better split-loom tubing.

Brian

Make that TSB 01-10-12 for the part number info.

Visual comparison with the terminals in the kit will be required. If I elect to go this route I'll post part numbers.

Brian

I had an intermittent stall problem with my 96 v6.Ford didn`t know what was wrong and began changing parts. Finally, they replaced all the shoddy wiring harnesses in the engine compartment. No more stalls.

I had an intermittent stall problem with my 96 v6.Ford didn`t know what was wrong and began changing parts. Finally, they replaced all the shoddy wiring harnesses in the engine compartment. No more stalls.

Oh my....

http://www.jag-lovers.org/xj-s/book/InjHarnessRebuilding.html

Haven't read it yet but it looks like it might be applicable..