Let me preface the following with the fact that this thing has 206K on it, and he is going to get a new vehicle this coming spring.

I didn't pinpoint exactly where the shorts were. I just know there was a short on both sides of the engine harness plug. That made it even trickier to figure out. There are so many wires in the loom, and Ford has it bolted/tied down pretty good right above the exhaust manifold. Recipe for disaster, IMO. I just decided that I would start with a fresh wire instead of tearing it all the way down.... which is what I would have done if it was mine. After doing some research afterwards, i discovered that the Escape (specifically the 3.0) in 2005 & 2006 has some real issues with wiring harness and PCM failure. (Usually it is cylinder 1 though... not 6)

Good point on someone attempting to install some sort of security system, BTW. That might be what the mess was. It appeared to me that the wires inside were hot glued. Your guess just might be what the deal is. Cylinder 5 had a newer plug in it.... it was a finewire. The rest were original Motorcrafts, and the electrodes on all 5 looked like a mushroom. Might have to go dig one out of the garbage..... it's the worst I've seen - with the exception of a total engine failure situation. I was surprised it still ran so well.

 

Ahhhh yes. That one is a fun time too. The 5400 South and Redwood location was the first Wally World in SLC. The original building was torn down though, and the "Super Walmart", or whatever they call them, was reborn. I recommend hitting the Iceberg in that parking lot for a shake if you are around there again. If you want to hit a Walmart that is calm and clean, go to the 6200 South and 5600 West location. It's worth the extra drive, lol.

 

Right, that's what you do if nothings visible, run a by-pass. The Fords also intermix connectors on it's way to the PCM. Takes more time tracking them down, not to mention digging them out to test lol. You may have realized this if you went over a diagram. So a by-pass simplifies..well as long as there's not a module in the middle of all that lol. Today's vehicles have a damn module for everything and many times you won't find them on the diagrams. Reason that is, diagrams are done in layers like photography and manipulation. So when you think you have to entire diagram in front of you, you may not! It could layer #3 lol. That cause loss of hair for a DIY'er if unaware.

I've rebuilt probably 50% of the harness network under the hood on the 98 because of stress breaks inside the insulation. Ignition and engine harness complete. Found most of them through resistance testing after one break. Yea one went and the others would of soon followed. Time consuming as hell and will never do it again. The cost of a new harness is now worth that price lol.

 

Found my Cell phone..went riding this weekend and lost it. Had carharts on and it fell out of that little leg pocket. Laying in the middle of trail just before a large body of muddy water. How often do you find your phone after riding lol. Yea yea, should of relocated first. I recall stopping at the location where it was found. Stopped , killed the engine so I could hear how far behind the rest were. Must of flew out of there kick starting I expect.

 

Ya I’ll have to do that for sure. Ended up driving out 80 west so the wife could see the Salt Lake. We made it all the way to Delle or Della or whatever it is and found a nice little hill to climb. You guys have some nice off-roading out here!

 

Look out the window to the left, -now there's some hills!


Looks cool, -never seen that view in person. Checking out some new county ehh.

 

Anyone want a 2003 Ford Escape Limited as a project car? No, I'm serious, I've been fighting electrical gremlins on this thing for over three months now:
Huge saga about replacing the alternator 3 times. Replaced the rear wiring harness at wife's insistence while putting in the third alternator. Drove the car to work and suddenly couldn't get codes from the OBD2 port (I had driven it a couple miles the day before running a bluetooth scanner and good data the whole time.) Shift solenoid fails and I manage to get it home about 4 days later (Friday night.)

Saturday morning go out to start working on the thing the battery is flat. Jumped it and got it running (and no I didn't cross the streams) and it seemed to run ok, Still no codes from the engine.

Sunday same thing and replaced the battery. Next weekend the battery was D-E-D dead again.

This weekend went through and did a draw test. 250mA being pulled from the battery with engine off and key out. Pulled the BTN2 fuse which appears to do most of the interior (not counting ignition and the shift solenoid) and drops to 150mA draw. Went through both fuse blocks and no drop below 150mA. Everything I'm finding says it should be below 50mA. About the only thing I haven't disconnected is the alternator.

About ready to do a mythbuster's style explosion with this thing.

I'm trying to figure out if it's the shift solenoid shorting causing all this grief. It appears to be hot even when the interior is disabled and as soon as the car runs for a minute or two it goes into failure mode and locks the shifter from moving. I haven't figured out what fuse it's even on.

 

Ya man, lots of big sharp rocks so you gotta be careful. I actually got a small bit of trail damage. Came off a big rock, hit the exhaust tip and pushed it into the back fender. Not too bad but I know it’s there kind of thing.

 

Yeah just like the not having the logos on the side of my truck. Huge holes there and 100$ later (Heritage edition logos.) Not important, doesn't make the car run better, but bugs the ever living #$@#$ out of you.

 

Hey, JB,- i think you should make a sticky on "more power"!!- call it the Book of Brew- A horsepower Bible!!-all these guys wanting cheap horsepower could just read it chapter and verse, and realize that its a truck engine after all!
Oh, then the better gas mileage sticky!!!