JSWright (69.251.1.219) - Fri Nov 28 20:22:23 2008

I have a 2002 Ford Excursion V10. Drove truck today and all was fine. Parked and locked it. Returned about 1 hour later and the key remote would not unlock the doors. Tried wife's also but still nothing. Used key to gain entry. When I opened the door, the interior lights did not come on. Thinking that the battery was dead, I tried to start it and she fired up with no problems. I noticed that the headlights did not come on eventhough the switch was in the "auto" postion. When I turned the engine off and opened the door, the radio kept playing. The radio contined to play eventhough I removed the key, exited and shut the door. I checked the interior fuse box but did not see any problems. Had to disconnect the battery so that it would not die. Anyone have an idea what the problem may be. First time that this has happened.

Reply #1 Rob (71.211.9.191) - Thu Feb 5 23:48:01 2009

I have the exact same problem with my 2000 V10 6.8L Excursion. Tried replacing the ECM, absolutely no change. Oddly, if I disconnect the battery and use a charger to power the vehicle, it behaves a little better under some circumstances. With just the battery connected, the hood and interior lights flash rather than stay on solid. While attmepting to remove the ECM, found that forcing the ECM sideways resulted in 'normal' behavior briefly. Checked harness for loose connections or pushed-out pins, everything was fine. Suspecting a bad ground based on some of the behaviors, but unsure where to look. Eating up lots of hours and getting nowhere (literally).

Reply #2 joe gray (76.101.194.149) - Mon Apr 20 19:01:34 2009

my 2001 excursion suddenly wont start. I have a new battery and it wont even turn over. I hear a couple of relays clicking.

Reply #3 Joe (64.136.27.227) - Fri Jul 3 22:59:27 2009

2002 FORD EXCURSION ELECTRICAL PROBLEM:

While driving the vehicle the smell of wires burning was noticed with a small plume of smoke viewed coming up from the upper LEFT side of the steering column shroud (not the steering wheel).

The battery was immediately disconnected. Upon inspection NO fuses were blown. All fuses checked out good. NO wires were found burned, damaged, or frayed. ALL electrical components appear operative with the following exception.

During TEST: In PARK, w/ignition key on, while checking light functions, the back-up sensor alarm went on (beeping) momentarily (twice). After several repeated attempts the incident did NOT re-occur.

Can anyone HELP? Got any ideas?

Please advise smoothbella@netzero.com

Thank you.

Reply #4 Don (71.38.2.109) - Mon Jul 13 12:52:03 2009

I have a 2002 ford V10 in my Motor home. On one weekend out camping I started the engine and proceeded to hit the retract button on my leveling jacks. As soon as I hit the button the enging shut off and everything went dead. when I turned the key to restart, not even the dash indicator lights come on it was like I had disconnected the battery. It was towed to the ford garage and they found nothing. It just started working????

It gives no warning and happened two other times since. I was able to start after checking fuses an grounds.....it just started working without knowing what I did.

Reply #5 Ron (209.55.111.70) - Wed Jul 15 11:21:29 2009

Don it sounds like a bad ground. Without looking at it I would say the ground would have to be with the retracting system. I would start with cleaning all grounds you can locate.

Reply #6 Rod (78.23.115.189) - Wed Jul 15 12:01:44 2009

I just picked up my 2003 Ford Excursion from the shipping company. (I moved overseas) It is a 6.0l turbo diesel. The batteries were dead. After charging and starting the instrument panel was dead. I replaced the fuses (35, 41) but still nothing. Everything else seems to work fine. Any ideas???

Thanks,

Reply #7 Josh Hurley (67.174.47.193) - Fri Jul 17 00:29:29 2009

I turned my Excursion on the other day and the the light for the fuel consumption, which is just above the windshield, on the roof of the cab, was completely out. It has not come back on for days now. A week before this happened, the scan on the radio would not stop, continually scanned, and would only stop on a station for a few seconds. Seems like something electrical is going on, but when I checked the fuses, I couldn't even determine which fuse it was linked to. Any suggestions?

Reply #8 dave p (24.45.170.200) - Tue Jul 21 12:01:13 2009

I have the exact same problem as many of you with the ford excursions and i might be able to shine some light upon the topic and hopefully someone else can determine the answer. my problems are i come out the next morning and the radio will be on, running light will be on, all without the key in ignition, electrical door locks wont work, and sometimes if the radio decides to work, when you switch the car into drive the radio turns off and when you switch to park, the radio turns on. I checked the ohms and the battery is NOT dying down like its suppose to after you turn the car off, so it has a constant trickle of electric going through it. I have to disconnect the battery every night so i can start the car again in the morning. I have determined that I generally have this problem only when it rains very hard… my gut tells me that somewhere on our trucks either from the top or underneath, something is getting wet and screwing with the electrical system. I say this My local mechanic replaced what was called a GEM board which controls everything electrical in the excursion ( I have a 2000 v10 6.8 gas excursion) . That made the problem go away temporarily until it rained again. It turned out my front windshield was not sealed correctly and water was getting into the car into the back of the radio and other components. I resealed the windshield and for a while it was good until the other night I am having the same problems (because it rained hard) so I guess water is getting in somewhere again because, again it only happens when it rains…... then again maybe this is a grounding issue as well. Also as a side note i use this trailer to two a horse trailer with electric brakes but i have this problem regardless of whether the trailer is hooked up or not.

Did anyone ever figure out what your problem is I live in NYC and hesitant to take this to a real ford repair shop because they charge out the nose and if you know anything about new York city mechanics, whether they work for ford or not, the majority of them are simply grease monkey morons who cant fix the problem if their life depended on it and i dont feel like paying double and getting back double of nothing in return.

Would love to hear back from you!

Dave

Reply #9 dave p (24.45.170.200) - Tue Jul 21 19:17:54 2009

Hi guys. Just a follow up. I flipped out and started taking everything apart myself (dashboard, and area around windshield.... there is water ON the damn fuse panel inside the car where the driver sits! now i need to track down how the **** water is getting in there... but i still wonder what else is going on here!

Reply #10 Don (71.38.2.109) - Tue Jul 21 19:39:42 2009

I had an appointment at tge garage to have the problem checked but backed out when I seen $$$$ in the shop formans eyes, LOL. I had checked all of the grounds that I could possible find and they were all intact. The only thing I didn't do, is that I probably should have taken them all apart and clean and reseated them. I don't seem to have any water problems as Dave P descrived. I did try to take the covers off the stearing column but had trouble getting it all off because the ignition switch had a cover that I couldn't get off.

Reply #11 Dave P (24.45.170.200) - Wed Jul 22 02:11:56 2009

Don, I got your email. Thanks for posting. Dont count out the water problem unless you can check this problem right after a heavy rain storm. i just went nuts taking any screw/bolt off until i got most of the dash off. look around on the internet (i will try to help as well) ... I will bet there are a few home made guides out there for free, written by other folks who are ready to torch their excursions (hell, the car might do it to itself with these electrical problems! Anyone who has any input please offer it as it is truly appreciated!

Reply #12 Clay L (12.150.238.227) - Fri Jul 31 20:02:31 2009

I just bought a 2004 Excursion 6.0 Diesel. I got into it today and the A/C system would not come on. No power, no lights, nothing. The rear system fan was blowing but only hot air. After checking all of the fuses and letting it sit for about an hour, I went out and everything was working... no problems. About 3 hours later, I was driving back and the car next to me told me that I had no brake lights. I pulled over and checked it out and sure enough, the right and left brake lights were not working and neither were the rear turn signals. Parking lights and the third brake light were working fine. I checked all of the fuses and did not find a problem with any of them. The common denominator with my problem is that it has been raining very heavily all week. I would really like to know how to fix this before I get pulled over and given a ticket.

Reply #13 Rob (71.211.18.118) - Sat Aug 1 12:09:37 2009

Hi everyone. The problem on my vehicle was a broken ground wire from (iirc) the body computer. This wire is located behind the kick panel next to the driver's left foot, where the parking brake is. The wire is fairly heavy gauge, and is crimped into a round ring-type connector which screws into the frame. The wire is encased in a black plastic shroud for abrasion protection, and if I recall the wire is red with a black stripe (but it was a while ago so yours might be different). It appears that due to continual movement of the wire, it eventually suffered metal fatigue and completely separated from the crimp connector, but would make contact intermittently (hence vehicle sort-of worked once in a while, perhaps for seconds or minutes, until you bumped it again). Just figure out a way to attach that wire to GND and you're good to go! BTW, it created all kinds of weird problems, of course non-start, but also weird dashboard lights, radio not turn on but would glow, interior lights partially on and couldn't turn off, etc.

Reply #14 dave p (24.45.170.200) - Sat Aug 1 12:30:45 2009

Hi Guys. Thank you Rob and everyone working together on our ford excursion issues. If you read my posts above you will see the problems I was having are similar to everyone elses here. rob, thank you for posting about the ground wire. I know what your talking about and that sounds about right! Oh, and by the way, i figured out (95% sure) that the windshield was my problem (water was getting into the car wetting the fuse panel and the GEM boards thus the crazy electrical problems.) I replaced the windshield and its been raining heavy as hell here in NYC for the past few days and I am not having any problems at all. BUT i did see some dried up water on my windshield on inside side of the glass. Either my guy didnt seal it well or i have water coming in from perhaps the roof and its doing capillary action and dripping in. Well, time to figure out this part out of the problem next. hope my info helps and if anyone has sugesstions as well please do reply!

Reply #15 Jack (207.200.116.131) - Wed Aug 5 15:52:31 2009

I have a 2004 Excursion 6.0 turbo Diesel the wire coming off the alternator was installed touching the manifold behind the alternator. Eventially it shorted out and drained the batteries and ruined the alternator and almost started a fire. Has anyone experienced a similar problem

Reply #16 Mike (65.33.110.51) - Wed Aug 19 03:38:10 2009

Rod;

Wow, this is interesting. I am on my second alternator, and now this one is malfunctioning - not giving enough charge. Didn't notice until batteries died way down. When they were real weak, my instrument panel went dead! Also, auto headlights stopped working, but manually turning on the lights works fine. Mine is also a 2003 Excursion with the6.0 Diesel engine. How weird is that?

Did you find a fix?

Thanks,

Mike

Reply #17 Chuck (216.229.21.227) - Sun Sep 6 00:44:48 2009

I have a 2000 Excursion V10 and while pulling a trailer today I noticed my turn signals stoped working.I tried the four way flashers and they also would not work.I have park lights, head lights, brake lights.I went through the owners manual but found nothing that tells me which fuses are for the turn signals or flashers.I double checked all the fuses and found one int the power distribution box that was burned out(#115-30amp-trailer tow battery charge)and replaced it.This did nothing.I have unhooked the trailer and still nothing.I'm thinking maybe a ground wire but don't know where to start.Thanks.

Chuck

Reply #18 Rand (66.82.9.56) - Wed Sep 9 20:43:09 2009

Wow Wow !!!!

Thank all you guys. I have a 2003 Excursion 6.0 and have had most of the problems discussed. I am in Honduras and here any type of diagnosis or repair is nearly impossible. It is interesting to note I had my windshield replaced a couple of years ago and will check the seal shortly as all my problems started after that. I just replaced the alternator which was apparently surpercharging and had some bad connectors. The repairman also found with the electrical problems it had messed with the codes in the computer module and he located the proper codes on the net and reprogrammed. Electrically everything is working properly for now.

The latest problem is after sitting for a day or two it takes along time to start and then belches white smoke from the exhaust and on the drivers side under the hood. Any clues???

I love the car but hate the problems and it only has 42, 000 miles.

Reply #19 Steve (69.125.147.152) - Sat Sep 19 12:38:54 2009

I have a 2000 excursion that intermittingly had produced an electrical oder of burned wires under the dash in the center of the floor lower dash area. This went on for years and never caused many problems other then a fuse going bad which I thought it would be from the overload of spot lights and other accessories. Also my drink holder would not slide in all the way so my 15 year old son decided he wanted to fix it, getting ready for his first fixer upper.

Possible cause, upon removing the drink tray under the radio and noticed a pair of wires twisted so tight it stopped the drink tray from going in all the way. The pair of wires were for the cigarette lighter below the drink tray. In my case the wires were twisted so tight it shortened the length and melted the wires and burned a fuse. Since I don't have a stock of fuses i would change it out when I thought about it. The reason why the cigarette receptacle was spun around was due to the fact that I have a habit of turning the cigarette plug to the right because some of the 12v plugs have threaded tips and the fuse could come out of the plug/accessory.

With this said the pair of wires go into a large harness which could be the answer to the other electrical issues I had. My wires were so twisted so tight from the receptacle that it shortened the length by 4 inches causing it to get in the way of the tray, and yes I could see the copper due to the plastic coating burned off. I replaced the wires from the receptacle back to the harness and secured the wires better. Some wires were so tight they were over heating and melting together. I don't know all of the wires in the harness but it may be a good starting point to see if you have the pair burned.

Reply #20 Court (72.48.193.248) - Thu Sep 24 17:25:39 2009

Well, yesterday my wife called and said all the lights inside were going nuts -- all the guages, etc.... Then, it died. No big deal right -- was the alternator, which we had replaced this morning. Today -- same place in the school zone, same thing -- all the guages went nuts, and it died after the repair. It's funny becasue 2 days in a row the wife and kids were blocking school traffic at school in a big, giant, green Excursion with a huge roof rack on it, modified bumpers and brush guard..... Mechanic just called, the reman alternator was defective. Interesting enough, we are in Central Texas, and have been through the hottest summer on the books, with no rain, yet for the past 5 days we have had TONS of rain.

just thought I'd share..... on thing I do know, is when the battery gets low or these beasts lose a little electrical power all the bells and whistles go off!!!!

Reply #21 RL (66.76.164.90) - Thu Sep 24 20:40:16 2009

I HAVE A 2002 EXCURSION V10 4WHEEL DRIVE, THE #45 FUSE BURNS OUT AND THE DASH GUAGES STOP WORKING, CANT FIND GROUNDED CIRCUIT HAS ANYONE HAD THE SAME PROBLEM. THIS HAPPENS INTERMITTENTLY.

Reply #22 Jason (98.134.207.149) - Mon Oct 5 17:32:13 2009

I have a 2001 Ford Excursion V-10. My problem is this:when I make more than one trip into town and I stop and turn off the truck, the truck will not restart for about 15min to an hour. It will also die while driving and not restart for the same amount of time. We took it to the Ford house, they replaced the fuel pump and fuel filter.After they replaced these items it ran great for three months now the problem is back. Does anyone have any idea's

Reply #23 Tim (76.232.66.37) - Sun Oct 18 21:17:47 2009

Well the cruise control won't work sometimes and now the door ajar light is on and wont go out its on a 2002 deisel any help?

Reply #24 George Hargenrader (64.241.37.140) - Tue Oct 20 14:34:02 2009

Parked at the store on Friday, came back and car would not start. Cranks fine, but no fuel it seems. Fuel pump is good, and relay appears to be good. Took to garage and it they say it looks like a bad ground somewhere? I saw reply 13 above, and will check the wire today. Anybody have a thought, I would apprciate suggestions before I tow it to the dealer.

Reply #25 T2 (99.170.97.63) - Fri Oct 23 10:11:22 2009

my wife just called me stating that the lights were on the fritz, and decided to search the internet. 1. I noticed the ground cable to both batteries were loose, 2 the interior lights are dem 3 just had e new altenator put on last year. all being said it is raining hard this morning. i hope that i can it another week, w/o any problems. for Betsy needs new tires, oil change for my extended warand my extended just ecpired 3 weeks ago.'02 diesel 92k miles

Reply #26 Chuck (216.229.21.227) - Fri Oct 30 23:39:11 2009

My 2000 Excursion V-10 has been acting up lately.Radio quits working but the lights stay on, just no sound. Heater fan stays on after turning the ignition off. Have to turn the switch back on to shut off the fan. Now I'm getting a beeping warning sound, but no lights on.I get 5 sets of 5 beeps(25 total).

Any one got any ideas???

Thanks

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