Escort electrical chaos, taillight circuit short?

[RoadWarrior222]

Hi folks,

My '95 LX Wagon is giving me grief. Blew the tail light circuit fuse, which also knocks out the dash lights. Tried a 20A in there and it blew that straight away too. Wriggled and jiggled everything in the rear light clusters and it looked okayish, checked the bulbs, crossed my fingers and fitted another 15A... which was a cheapie dollar store one, and it didn't blow ... but the lights weren't on either, apart from a dull glimmer in the drivers rear... and then I smelled burning and found a wire going melty under the dash...

Wire is red with a black stripe which the haynes manual diagrams tell me is the switched live to the tail light circuit. It goes to a 6 pin molex under the dash there, haven't figured what part of the circuit that is yet. Whether that's coming down from the stalk or going off to the dash lighting.

Anyway, any "usual suspects" to check for finding the short? i.e. notorious chafe points etc.

I heard the tailgate hookup could be a possible, but in the dark with a flashlight in one hand, I wasn't able to check it very thoroughly yet, hasn't chafed through the boot and doesn't feel funky through it.

Can anyone even tell me which way that wiring goes through the car? Under the headliner? Along the edges of the floor? Don't want to have to rip the ENTIRE interior out trying to find the sucker.

Does anything go badly wrong with the relay for that, and if so, where is the damn thing, is it one of the ones by the passenger strut tower? Or is it under the dash on the passenger side there? that's where it seems to click.

many thanks for any hints, also any general tricks for finding shorts would be great too.

This car is kind of "special" by the way, just about every problem I've ever had with it has been outside the scope of the Haynes manual, AND the electronic ford FSM thingie I've got... so if there's a "once in a billion miles" and I've only ever seen it once in 93 years of working on cars kinda shot, tell me it first, it's probably that...

TIA

RW222

[tommyturbo]

I've got an 89 & 95 SHO. The 89 has some electrical gremlins I have been trying to track down. I'm not an expert but the older manuals I have, have two types of diagnostic tests.
1. Key on engine running ( KOER)
2. Key on engine off (KOEO)

Not sure if this will apply to your car. All the wiring in my taurus runs along the sides under the carpet. But escort may be different.

[RoadWarrior222]

Thanks for posting, yes the KOEO and KOER are mainly concerned with engine and sensor diagnostics. Only part in there that's concerned with any light circuits is the brake switch test.

[HemiShelby]

Well I know on other Ford models they run the body wiring down the drivers side between the door and the seat. I have had some water accumulate there and cause issues. One thing to look for is just sharp edges all under that dash. Hope you find your issue. Good luck.

[turbovanman²]

Use the trick I've posted numerous times of using an old high beam sealed headlight, put that in place of the fuse, it will light up like a Xmas tree with a dead short then you can trace wiring etc until it goes out. Also use to check grounds, IT WILL find bad grounds that show up good with a multimeter.

[20w/ashelby]

I'd wager the problem is most likely in the column. Is it a tilt column? A lot of times with the steering wheel being moved up and down through the years it will chafe the wires in there. This could also explain why it's shorting the dash lights, it could being shorting to ground and feeding power back through a dash ground. Try measuring resistance between a point in the melted wire and a solid piece of the dash, should be a dead give away of a short if it's a closed circuit.

[RoadWarrior222]

GrarrrraarrrRRrrrr

I hate working on vehicles when it's below freezing...

Monday got f'ed, water heater got a leak was all day sorting that. (Did I mention my house gets jealous of my cars and develops random plumbing problems whenever the cars need work)

Tuesday, morning was too damn cold, afternoon, still 7 or 8 below freezing, but struggled through trying to follow the ford diagnostics, got most of the wiring exposed, interior looks like it had a rabid bear loose in it now.

Today, waited for it to get the windchill out of the double digit minus, and then struggled on again trying to make sense out of the FSM diagnostic routines... figured I was being "systematic".... this afternoon, got totally pissed off, ignored my FSM and "did it my way" and started unplugging harnesses until I'd isolated the short to the arse end of the car and the tailgate... yup, under the boot at the hinge, cracked to hell under there.... so careful application of tape and liquid electrical tape globbed all over for now... will have to get a new harness and put it in... in the warm weather, trying to move those harnesses is unpossible this weather, it's like trying to bend tree branches, plastic is too damn hard.

But... it's not over yet, interior is still all out, now the fuse stays good but the lights stay on even when switched off!!!

Pulled the relay... they stay on..

Yup, cheapie fuse and melty wires made the problem worse, the signal wire to the relay from the switch has melted to the supply wire somewhere under there... I hope not in the 2" diameter bunch I can't get enough play in the damn cables to get the fuse box turned to see and have enough room to unplug harnesses. Might have to run the car with the heat on full blast to soften everything up.

Anyway, guess the diagnostics were giving me mixed signals because the lights were both shorted and stuck on... but still... either way they came out I think I'd have replaced the freaking relay and the column switch by now... nice diagnostics Ford, hardly better than the "throw parts at it" method...

So... tomorrow morning, hope to be able to expose the fused up wire melties... dig the figpuckers out and do "something" about it...

[RoadWarrior222]

Finally seems to be working right ... touch wood. My underdash around the fuses and relays now looks like Doc Emmet Brown, McGuyver and Red Green all took acid and had a "fantastic contraption" competition... but it works... now to put all the panels back..

[RoadWarrior222]

Lights all working properly still after 4 hours driving in salt spray to "do Christmas", and got round to a few sales today, so far so good.

One issue came up, don't know if it's because it broke, or because I fixed it... The rear defogger hasn't been shutting off by itself for quite a while, was on a thermostat or timer or something, probably a wax bead circuit breaker type thing in the switch, not really sure. Anyway, after an hour and a half of driving with it on, there was a noise like a stray BMG round ricocheting off the dash, and after not quite making a new sunroof in shock, and determining all major systems were peachy, it too me a while to realise what happened.... the rear defogger finally clicked off...

What I figure happened is it maybe wasn't getting enough current through it due to poor ground or connection, which got fixed when I patched up the tailgate harness... and it got corroded in place or something... then with enough current it finally broke free... but now it ain't latching in.... will come on if I hold it... guess I'll have to get another switch unit.

I am now slightly better armed to deal with freezing harnesses and brittle plastics, picked up a heat gun on sale for $10... so can soften them up if I have to mess with them again.