I bought the heavy duty flasher/relay from Ford today and I cant find where it goes. I looked up under the dash on both sides and under the hood. Has anyone replaced theirs on an 05 Escape?

 

Good question. I just checked my '05. The fuse panel is lcated on the right side of the shift "hump" on the floor, but I don't see the flasher in there.

 

Does anyone know if replacing the flasher with the trailer tow one will give me power to the wiring harness at the rear bumper. I called every Ford dealer around here and nobody can help me with this question.

 

Turn it on and listen.

 

I did that first and all I found after taking the dash apart is that the clicking sound comes from the bulb for the turn signals. They are not like the old mechanical flashers that are in older cars. Thanks for your response.

 

It may be a help (or not) but The Flasher on the older models is behind the Dash on the extreme left side. I just replaced one in my 03 two days ago. The flasher is about 1 inch thick and two inches wide by about 3 inches high. Similar to size of a cigarette pack. If it is in the same place on the 05, you can access it from a semi-circular flat panel on the side of the dash that fits close to the door trim and the rubber door seal. The panel can be unhooked by reaching under the Dash and pushing on the side towards the driver's door. The flasher unit is bolted to a metal bar and has on the bottom two wiring harness connections side by side. The wiring harnesses can be removed by pushing on each of the retainer locks and pulling the plastic harness at the same time.
From what I understand at Escape_Central.com , they may have moved it on the 05's so with that all being written, I'm not sure.

Bilbo

 

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For my 87 Ranger & 95 Taurus the flasher & fuse locations are in the owners manual.

Did Ford quit putting this info in the newer owners manuals????????????

 

I believe that if you check the Escape owner's manual, they have the fuse locations including the fuse for the flasher circuit but not the locations for the Flasher unit. I remember a few back when the flasher was a small can mounted in the fuse panel area. They seem to have grown and they are located in other places than the fuse box. From what I've read, on the '05 scapes, they are on the steering column and replacing the flasher unit may not be what is needed. Someone has suggested the "Escape Harness Converter Kit" (5L8Z 15A416 AA) but another person on the same forum says that it is the same relabeled kit (Valley Industries part #52260) that one can get aftermarket for about 1/2 the price.
Bilbo

 

Thanks Bilbo. Every now & then someone asks a question & i wonder why they dont just look it up in their owners manual. Now I know that not all owners manuals have the info they used to.

BTW, for my Ranger & Taurus i have the Ford electrical & vacuum trouble shooting manuals. It's amazing how simple it can sometimes be to fix electrical problems thanks to these manuals.

In some cases just looking at a wiring diagram & knowing what is & isn't working is all it takes to figure out what the problem is.

 

That's true. I thin that most people expect the owners manual to have information like how to adjust the radio and the seats. I've been trying to find out for some time what fluid is traveling through the factory oil cooler and no one has answered this for me. I know that the oil cooler connects to the radiator heat exchanger but is the fluid Oil or is it Antifreeze?

Those Vacuum and Electrical manuals would be very handy if one keeps a vehicle for any length of time as those issues can surface fairly easy when the wiring and vacuum hoses get older. I had an issue with an older Dodge once because the vacuum lines were used to change the heater settings. The lines were routed by the dash controls and they had started to leak after the car reached about 18 years of age.

Bilbo

 

Transmission fluid flows through the cooler in the bottom of the rad.
This is cooled by engine coolant surrounding the cooler element.
On some older vehicles there were hoses that carried engine coolant to an externally mounted cooler.

 

Thanks stuart1 but,
I was writing about the oil cooler on Escapes and not trans cooler.
I suspect that the Oil cooler sustem diverts radiator fluid to a casting at the base of the Oil Filter and does not divert oil to the radiator.

Also
On automatic Tranny Escapes the Trans. fluid runs through a seperate fin and tube cooler outside of the radiator. It is a seperate heat exchanger in front of the radiator at the bottom.
Thanks,
Bilbo

 

Engine oil will be sent to the cooler. Not coolant to the engine oil.

If you look closely you will see one transmission line entering the radiator first, then to the external cooler.

Are you perhaps looking at a power steering cooler?

 

Bilbo I believe you are talking about the cooler above the oil filter. This is a oil cooler. The lines going into it carry coolant not engine oil.