Focus Electrical Problems
#1
05-05-2006 | 03:17 AM
Thread Starter
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 20
Focus Electrical Problems
Ok guys… so I’m back again, with a little more in this saga… I've posted previously about gauge sweep problems, that we thought were associated with a bad ground somewhere, but kept being told by people at Ford that it wasn’t electrical at all, and then that they couldn’t do anything to help me.
Well My car caught on fire yesterday as I was driving down a busy street with two kids in the back. I was driving and all of a sudden it started smoking in the car, very thick, strong smelling smoke. It smelled almost exactly like it did in December when I ran over a plastic bag in a parking lot that melted to my catalytic converter.
I managed to pull over and pull into a parking lot, got the kids out of the car and looked around. I didn’t see anything that could be responsible, so I tried to start the car again and slowly drive out of the parking lot. I only made it about 30 feet before the car was filled with smoke again. Eventually my boyfriend arrived and we located the smoke and tore out the carpeting and side panel in my hatch/trunk area.
It appears that the wiring, specifically the ground wire, that runs all the way from the front of the car, somewhere from around the steering column, all the way to the back of my hatch door, had melted and caught into a small small flame.
We’ve called Ford, who basically told me, wow that sucks… well you can bring it in and we will start with replacing all of those wires, and then afterwards we will try to troubleshoot it, but we probably won’t be able to find out what caused it, and there’s a really good chance that it will happen again, because we won’t be able to find the cause.
We have decided to keep the car at home here until we can at least take out all of the interior panels etc from those areas, to make it easier for them to look at it in the shop. We would also prefer to replace the wiring ourselves—our concern is that we want to make sure that we can actually fix the original problem…
Any ideas that anyone has, suggestions, or things to check before we take it in to Ford would be much appreciated. We’re planning to inspect all of the grounds again tomorrow and trace the wiring as far as we can, as well as inspecting the battery cables.
Well My car caught on fire yesterday as I was driving down a busy street with two kids in the back. I was driving and all of a sudden it started smoking in the car, very thick, strong smelling smoke. It smelled almost exactly like it did in December when I ran over a plastic bag in a parking lot that melted to my catalytic converter.
I managed to pull over and pull into a parking lot, got the kids out of the car and looked around. I didn’t see anything that could be responsible, so I tried to start the car again and slowly drive out of the parking lot. I only made it about 30 feet before the car was filled with smoke again. Eventually my boyfriend arrived and we located the smoke and tore out the carpeting and side panel in my hatch/trunk area.
It appears that the wiring, specifically the ground wire, that runs all the way from the front of the car, somewhere from around the steering column, all the way to the back of my hatch door, had melted and caught into a small small flame.
We’ve called Ford, who basically told me, wow that sucks… well you can bring it in and we will start with replacing all of those wires, and then afterwards we will try to troubleshoot it, but we probably won’t be able to find out what caused it, and there’s a really good chance that it will happen again, because we won’t be able to find the cause.
We have decided to keep the car at home here until we can at least take out all of the interior panels etc from those areas, to make it easier for them to look at it in the shop. We would also prefer to replace the wiring ourselves—our concern is that we want to make sure that we can actually fix the original problem…
Any ideas that anyone has, suggestions, or things to check before we take it in to Ford would be much appreciated. We’re planning to inspect all of the grounds again tomorrow and trace the wiring as far as we can, as well as inspecting the battery cables.
#2
05-09-2006 | 01:22 PM
Senior Member
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 152
RE: Focus Electrical Problems
Sounds like you're in over your head with this Focus. You and the dealer that is telling you they can't fix it.
I don't have a schematic for the wiring but I can tell you that it most likely does not have a ground wire running from front to back. There's no need for one, since the car body is the ground. Most components are grounded locally, usually withing a couple of feet of the component. Ground wires aren't usually the ones that burn up when shorted. Hot wires are protected by a fuse that should burn before anything gets damaged. Are you sure it's not an aftermarket add-on thats burned? Maybe an amplifier feed put in by a previous owner?
At any rate, I'd love to hear the final outcome of this. Please post
I don't have a schematic for the wiring but I can tell you that it most likely does not have a ground wire running from front to back. There's no need for one, since the car body is the ground. Most components are grounded locally, usually withing a couple of feet of the component. Ground wires aren't usually the ones that burn up when shorted. Hot wires are protected by a fuse that should burn before anything gets damaged. Are you sure it's not an aftermarket add-on thats burned? Maybe an amplifier feed put in by a previous owner?
At any rate, I'd love to hear the final outcome of this. Please post
#3
05-09-2006 | 10:36 PM
Thread Starter
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 20
RE: Focus Electrical Problems
so a bit of an update... I was told by a couple people that my insurance company *should* cover this... so the car is currently with them, until they figure out what caused it and if they will cover this cause. I contacted the dealership again about cost for the wires, I gave him the part numbers, and he told me that it is four separate harnesses that run the length of the car and will end up being just for parts (not labor), just over $3000. I am assuming that the car is going to be written off, as it's only worth about $7000.
We found it odd too that no fuses had gone before the fire, and were trying to figure out why this might be so, especially with the number of previous fuses we've blown. As for aftermarket parts... the car was previously owned by an old couple who had everything, and I mean everything, done at the dealership. No add-ons of any sort.
We're all really kind of stumped here, and it's even harder because I can't find ANYONE who has had the same problems as me. At least with my previous saturn, I knew that every single other saturn owner was also burning 4 litres of oil every week. I was the norm, not abnormal. I'm honestly hoping at this point that the insurance company DOES cover this, and will just write the car off. I would consider getting another Focus, but I'm done with This one.
We found it odd too that no fuses had gone before the fire, and were trying to figure out why this might be so, especially with the number of previous fuses we've blown. As for aftermarket parts... the car was previously owned by an old couple who had everything, and I mean everything, done at the dealership. No add-ons of any sort.
We're all really kind of stumped here, and it's even harder because I can't find ANYONE who has had the same problems as me. At least with my previous saturn, I knew that every single other saturn owner was also burning 4 litres of oil every week. I was the norm, not abnormal. I'm honestly hoping at this point that the insurance company DOES cover this, and will just write the car off. I would consider getting another Focus, but I'm done with This one.
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