HI,

Ok, I just bought a 2005 Ford Five Hundred SEL. First off, it was a "Flood Vehicle" but I'm not sure how much water actually got inside the car. I bought the car because it looks great both inside and out. The car was completely dead so they thought the engine/tranny was bad when in fact they couldn't even get a light to come on. I jiggled all the sensors and the fuse boxes and then hooked up a set of jumper cables from my van to the 500 and after enough juiced transferred over, the car started right up. Engine is good and tranny is good.

MY PROBLEM: As soon as I put the positive battery cable on, all of the interior and exterior lights turn on including the hazard flashers. This then wears down the fully charged battery until it's completely drained.

I've pulled all the fuses under the steering wheel and can't get any of the lights to go off. When I pull fuse #19 in the relay box in the engine compartment the lights go off and the flashers go off. This fuse is a 40A fuse which is used to power the fuse box under the steering wheel column to run solid state components. Even when no key is in the ignition, as soon as I insert fuse #19 in the relay box, all the interior and exterior lights come on and the hazards start flashing and the radio comes on and the trunk lids electronically pops open. When I remove the fuse everything turns off. What really gets weird is one time I will insert fuse#19 and all the lights will come on and the hazard lights will begin flashing. Then I remove the fuse19 and then reinsert it and the hazard lights will remain lit solid. Every other time inserting the fuse, one will show flashers and the other time no flashers. When I have flashers, I also have the flasher symbols flashing on the instrument panel. When the flashers are solid lit, no indicators on the panel. Also, no turn signals and brake lights.

The other strange issue is my digital readout says LOW OIL PRESSURE, BRAKE FLUID LOW, WASHER FLUID LOW. None of these things are true. Also the oil can symbol is on indicating low oil pressure and the brake light is on. Just changed the oil at Jiffy Lube and they said no water was found in the oil. I reset all the warnings and they all come back on! Washer Fluid works fine and is completely full. Brakes seem to work fine as well. Brake fluid is full. Could it be each individual sensor causing a problem or is this all tied to the fuse #19 problem? I'm thinking the SJB small junction box of fuses under the dash is either fried and faulty or has a corroded connection as there are muddy water spots all around the box. This must've went into a ditch or creek or something.

Radio works fine, traction control fine, abs fine, no engine light problems. Runs and idles and shift perfect, HOWEVER a couple times I tried to get on it and it started shaking and then whenever I tried to press the gas the tach went down.

I pulled over and removed fuse 19 from the relay box, reinserted it and the car drove fine again.

Does anyone has a good guess for fixing this or where to start? Grounding problem? Wiring Problem? or a bad small junction fuse box or bad relay box?

I only paid $4000 for the car and its interior is beautiful and the exterior is great as well. It's black with gray leather and nice 17" rims.

Just need to get the electrical problems fixed and I'll be happy!

PLEASE HELP ME!!!!