I just bought a '98 Ford Explorer - Eddie Bauer, 4X4, V6 4.0L. Everything electrical was working fine yesterday. I had to fix the back door latch, so after doing that I had all kinds of problems. The battery died while I was doing the work, so I'm not sure if that has anything to do with this. The windows were down yesterday, and now won't go up. The sunroof won't close. The interior lights won't go on. The 4X4 won't engauge. On the dash the 4X4 lights come on and flash for about a minute every 15 minutes or so.
With that said, it strange to me that everything else is working. Radio, mirrors, power seat, heat/cool, head lights, tail lights, ect..
I checked all the fuses 2 or 3 times. Both the fuse panel in the truck and in the engine compartment. Now I'm lost, any ideas??? Could this be related to the security system at all???
Thanks for any info.

 

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Have you checked the fusible links? May have shorted something while working on the door latch and blown one. Also, have you checked the battery to see if it has gone bad? Will it crank the car? You may try disconnecting the battery for around 30 minutes to reset the computer and see if that helps (some of the stuff you mentioned is controlled by the PCM).

 

No I'm going a different way than you on this one Jerry. None of the items listed are controled by the PCM. Not even the 4x4 electrics - that has it's own controller (which might have a 4WD engege signal back to the PCM.) No need to worry about clearing the codes anyway since the battery died and the codes have already gone bye bye.

It's going to take some retracing of the rear back door latch. Poster was not too clear on what was repaired. Was it just the mechanical latch or the electro-mechanical solenoid lock? If the latter, i would suspect that power to the solenoid comes off the same circuit as those items not working. So possible a fuse or relay. My 93 has a fuse box under the dash but the relay box is under the hood. A bad main power relay could kill multiple systems at once as mentioned.

Could be as simple as that but what blew the fuse or relay? Is there a short the the chassis in the repair work? That needs to be verified and fixed if need be.

And what killed the battery? A low draw overnight could do that so I'm thinking a defective solenoid or still maybe a direct short.

Funny thing too is that the 4WD flash issue has been traced as a symptom to bad drivetrain slip sensors locatd in the differentials. PArt of a auto traction control system common on this year (and others) Explorer. If you have a auto traction control system, then maybe those sensors run off the same power circuit as the other items mentioned.

Sorry I tried to find a schematic on the autozone web site but they didn't have one with these components. You need to refer to a good schematic, find the commonality to all these components, and then go from there.

 

Yeah, I looked at autozone too. Only thing related to this was that the 4x4 light does come off of pin 14 on the PCM. Also, if the battery voltage just got real low and not disconnected, the PCM may have gotten a little scrambled. That's why I suggested resetting.

 

Pin 14 is probably an "OK to engage 4WD" signal from PCM to 4WD controller, enabled by being in park/nuetral and zero speed both of which the PCM monitors. But I think we both hit on a grounded wire due to repair - could be trickling the battery dead. Let's see what poster comes back with after further analysis.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I disconnected the battery for about an hour, and right after I reattached it, I heard all kinds of relay sounding clicks happening for about 10 secs after the cable was secured. I don't know what all the clicking was about, but the windows, sunroof, and interior lights work again. Might be a relay on its way out?? However the 4X4 lights are still flashing on the dash, its very random. They flash for about 30 secs then go off, and come back on again a few minutes later. And the 4X4 does not engage. Now the airbag light is on also, after I reconnected the battery. I don't know how the codes on these trucks work, but I know some vehicles show a code this way. The airbag light flashes 5 times and then 2 times (52), it goes through this cycle about 3 or 4 times, then just stays lite.
Also I don't know if this is part of the same problem, but the rear brake light stays lite or flashes until I use the remote to either lock or unlock the truck.

Also the work on the back door wasn't electrical, or at least not intentionally. I just had to secure the door handle with some pop rivets. I'm not sure what caused the battery drain yesterday, I happened over a period of about 3-4hours. The battery is less than a year old. I cleaned the posts and connections and seems good.

Thanks again for all the suggestions.