Hi again everybody,
Here's my issue. I have a 1999 Expedition 4X4 XLT with the 5.4L. Last Saturday, I went to the local kids charity car wash and during the wash, the radio died. When I looked down, all the gauges were off, windows and door locks dead. Basically all the electrical was dead except for the fan blower motor which worker marginally. On the way home, the idiot lights came on very dim. When I got home, I shut the truck down and tried to restart,,,,nothing happened,,,dead. I had to run out and left the truck in a nice sunny location. Sunday, it started to drizzle and the truck started right up. I was bringing it to my local dealership and after about 3 minutes, the battery gauge started to drop quickly until it bottomed out and everything shut off once again but luckily I got it to the dealer. On Monday, they jumped it, brought it in and started to diagnose.

My question is what is the proper procedure to diagnose this problem acording to Ford? Is there a flow chart or something of the sort? If so, can I get a copy?

Here's the deal,,,,I know everyone is chomping at the bit to type GEM and I though the same but that wasn't the problem. That's where they started and charged me the labor to drop the dash, remove the GEM & Fuse Panel to check for water intrusion. Nothing. Then I got hit for the labor to replace all that. Next step in the diagnose process, check the charging system under load. Battery passed the load test but the alternator failed at 9 volts. I got jammed with almost $400 in labor. And no kiss after they f@$%ed me,,,lol.

It seems like the most logical way to test is to go from the battery and work out from there. Also catches the easiest things first. It's like going in and telling them you have a miss in the engine. They tear down the motor to tell you it was a fouled spark plug.

Any help with a FORD document would be greatly appreciated.

BigMan69

 

I understand your frustration and cannot help with any documents. I do not think any shops go strictly by flow charts. If done by flow chart to start at battery and work to GEM, and it was the GEM you would be paying for labor of Checking battery, alternator and etc. before they got to the GEM. Not sure what you told them when dropping it off but if the car wash was mentioned and then sat in the sun and started fine most would check out GEM. What probably happened was the battery had a chance to recover enough when parked that it ran for you again.

 

I understand as well but I have been screwed by Ford in the past when they followed the ridiculous procedures/flow charts and I was charged for that labor. This time they went right to the GEM, bypassing the easier and cheaper possible fixes. If that is proper procedure laid out by Ford, then so be it. My understanding is that dealerships follow thier diagnostic procedures to the tee cause it's more labor charges for them.

Isn't there a FORD tech that can help out here?

Thanks,

BigMan69

 

No takers here??? Any help is appreciated.

 

i would still bet that there has been some water in the fuse box.the water could of dryed up but there is a green corrosion that will form in between the the layers of the circuits in the fuse box.when the fuse box was out they should of been able to see the problem.the windsheild leaking is the only place i have seen that would cause this problem.it also happens on the truck line also.i have repaired more than 20 of them.is the exp. still showing signes of the problem.i would have my windsheild fixed first.if the company says it has a breech then you could go down and buy a fuse box yourself and install it yourself.i think the fuse box cost about 145-174$.