I am orignal owner of my 97 Expy, which just turned 60K miles. While driving at night last weekend, my dashboard lights started flickering. I pulled over and the engine stalled. The battery was dead, so needed jump. When connecting jumper cables, the starter engaged by itself, without key in the ignition. The engine idled with starter remaining engage for a minute or two. After it appeared the engine was running OK, I put the head lights on to drive home, but the engine stalled again. At which point nothing happend when turning the key, even when jumped to a good battery.
I am fairly good mechincally, so replaced the ingintion swithc. Not a bad gamble at only $20 for the switch. Unfortunatley, it didn't fix the problem and I had to have it towed. The mechanic, who has performed good work on my cars over many years, said he has seen this problem many times on these Expy's and F150. It's usually a ground wire, which shorts out, causing damage to the starter solenoid and battery. However, in my case, he had to replace the starter solenoid, starter motor, starter cable, battery, alternator, lockout sensor, along with the ground wire. This was a huge expense, at a time when I can ill afford, since being out of work for nearly a year!

Question: does anyone know of a forum that collects/analyizes possible cases for reimbursement in such systemic problems?

 

I have a 97 EB expy with 147,000 on it. I have never heard of any of the problems that you mentioned. I think your mechanic took you for a ride! My alternator did go out almost 8 months ago. It did some pretty strange things. Beeping, buzzing, alarms going on and off, gauges went totally nuts, all warning lights came on, and truck would not accelerate! Then if it did it would die! You will not run all the systems long with battery power. If the alternator went bad and drained the battery your pretty much stuck on the side of the road! You might get it to run for about 5 min if the battery is fully charged and in good condition. These vehicles have so many sensors and systems running, that they will drain a good battery in minutes! Hope this helps. Oh, by the way In the family, we have 3 Expeditions, 2 F-250's, 1 Taurus, 1F-150, 1 Ranger, and 1 Explorer. We have all had these vehicles for a while with none of the problems that you mentioned.... Hope this helps you out a bit!

 

There was a post a week or so ago that a guy would turn his headlights on, and the engine would die. Didn't hear if he got it fixed or not though.

 

I am by no means an expert but I have a little knowledge of electricity. I do not believe a faulty ground wire would short out all those componenets each of which has some sort of fault protection. Do you have a code scanner? If so what codes did you get? If you think about, it electricity flows from negative to positive, the negative ground wire would have to have touched some positively charged part of each of those items. A ground which was intermittent would have the same effect as a switch and just turn attached components on and off. Unless the ground wire was 6 feet long and flapping around like an unmanned fire hose I do not see how it could happen.


But hey.......Stranger things have happened.

 

I had that happen on my Mercury, it was a loose battery cable.

 

Thanks all for the feedback. Since this happened, I've searched a few different sites and are seeing a number of reports of shorting out problems, many of which result in fires.

Hey, The4by4 freek, with that collection, have you thought to change your handle to "The4by4ord freek " ?

Good hearing from everyone.

 

We have a 2001 Ford Expedition. Everytime it rains, it leaks onto the floorboard therefore rains on certain components such as the computer. Monday, we are having the computer replaced for the 2nd time in 2 months. When it "rains" on the computer, it turns the ignition on as if the key is in it. Makes the 'ding' and all. Therefore, it drains the battery because it is running everything like it is on. I don't know if this is similar to your problem. The electronics are making clicking sounds. We replaced the battery... didn't help. They said it was leaking from the windshield.. Glass man came to my house, said it wasn't from the windshield. Ford has no answers but take it back to the mechanic. We have driven 40 minutes 8 times... and they don't know what the problem is. Sound familiar at all... or is this something totally different?

 

Dcresta... Yes the list is a long one! The Ford family of vehicles is IMHO a much superior grade than most vehicles on the road. You wouldn't care... about 10 yrs ago you wouldn't catch me even riding in a Ford! I was die hard Chevy! Now that I have owned several Fords, I wouldn't own anything else!

 

Heh Thomp,
I believe your problem is with the General Control Module or GCM. I have a 2000 and had the same problem last winter after heavy rain.............truck was dead and after I jump started it, the radio would only play in park or neutral and lights on dash would turn on and off intermittently and weird noises came from under the steering wheeel/dash area. The general control module is a main part of the computer and the electrical place that replaced it said they have seen a few of these with ford vehicles. I mentioned the possibility of rain getting to it due to a leaking windshield. The place was adament that that did not cause it. They said it was all dry under there. Anyway, they said the part was about $140 and I think they charged me about $70 to determine the cause and to replace it. Good Luck !

 

Did you have the windshield replaced or only the GCM? If it was only the GCM, did it still leak on it? Did you ever have puddles on your floor board? We get severe puddles after it rains. It looks like someone poured a bucket of water on it. We have had the whole computer replaced and we are having it replaced as we chat for the 2nd time in 2 months because it keeps getting wet. Did you have this problem too or was it a little different

 

I never had any moisture on the floorboard and it did appear dry under the dash area so i did not have my windshield resealed. It just seemed weird that it would happen after heaviest rain of the year and I thought maybe their was a leak but repair place said all dry. It was not until I saw postings about this in the forum that I realized that their is usually a leak.