This is driving me nuts!! :o

I've got a 2001 Ford F150 Supercrew 4.6.

The number 15 fuse keeps blowing, it's a 5A fuse and when it blows, my truck won't come out of park, the power windows won't work, windsheild wipers won't work and cruise control won't work.

I can pop it into nuetral as suggested on this forum and it works, but it keeps blowing.

I bought the truck at Carmax a year and half ago, it has close to 60,000 miles on it and warrantied until 80,000. I took it in to carmax and they replaced the fuse and had me replace the battery. It worked for a few weeks, then happened again, I took it back to them and they replaced some sort of accessory module, got it back, happened again a few days later, this time, I brought it back and they sent it to Ford. I just found out that Ford has been unable to get the fuse to blow for 3 or 4 days but they said a few electrical components had "brake fluid contamination" and they "think" this might have something to do with it. Only thing is, this is not covered under my warranty??? so it's gonna cost me $500 for something that may or may not fix the problem.

I can't afford $500 any ideas to help me out? Any ideas on what could be causing that fuse to blow? Can I somehow clean the brake fluid off of the components if I could find out what they are? or am I gonna have to drop $500?

Thanks for any help, like I said, this is driving me nuts, I've had to be without my truck for so many days which is bad enough, no I'm faced with having to spend money on it eventhough I've got a warranty, that really pisses me off!

 

Anyone?

 

Does it blow when you have your foot on the brakes or any time?

JMC

 

It seems to happen after it sits for a while, everytime I've noticed it, is when I'm unlocking the door with my remote, I know it happened because the back light and dome light don't light up, so it blows at some point between the time I last drove it and started it up. In other words, it seems to blow while it's just sitting there not started or anything? It may be the brake switch thing, I don't know, it doesn't happen consistantly so it's really hard to figure out what the cause is, the last time it happened, I stuck a 10 amp fuse in there instead of a 5 without starting it or moving anything and it blew instantly so it must be a wire shorting out somewhere, but then I got in the truck and replaced the fuse again it lasted for a few days, maybe because I moved the truck just enough to make the wire not touch? just guessing?

 

Yep, those intermittent short problems are a bitch. I don't think the brake cleaner would affect your fuse problem but don't rule it out. Its a good possiblity that a brake wire is rubbing against the frame of your truck somewhere but it would seem that you would not get it into park when you shut your truck off if the fuse was blown when you exited your vehicle.

 

yep, it's seriously becoming annoying, if I wouldn't have yelled at carmax about it and got a loaner, I would probably just stick a paper clip in there and let it fry whatever it needed to fry to get something fixed under warranty, this taking it in every week stuff is really bugging me.

 

I had a Maxima that was blowing a fuse. It would knock out my dash and brake lights as I remember. It was intermitant so taking it for diagnosis was out of the question. I removed the electronic dash but it was still blowing a fuse so I eliminated the dash. With the dash still out I jumped the fuse with a 12 volt lamp so that the current would go thru the lamp when the fuse would blow. I hit a bump while rolling up my electric window so I though it was some wire rubbing and the bump made the fuse blow. I replaced the fuse and was driving again but I rolled the window up (no bump). The light came on again so I knew the fuse had blown again but this time I connected the power window with the fuse blowing. I changed the fuse again and rolled up the window. Bingo! I tore the drivers door apart and found a bunch of wires rubbing against the power window. The wires had worn thru and would short when the power windows were rolled up.

 

Hmm...

http://66.179.14.118/forums/showthre...hreadid=157164

 

The 5amp circuit is not sending current to the brake lights. It is sending a 12v signal to various componants to deactivate/activate them. Ie: Speed Control Servo to deactivate cruise control. Do you have adjustabler pedals?

JMC

 

Yes, I have adjustable pedals.

 

Before you do aanything I would leave things connected, make sure that there is a fuse in the circuit and jiggle the harness near the connector to see if the fuse blows. If it does we will at least know where the general area of the the problem is.
The next thing to do is to remove the Brake switch at the pedals and test it. It may be allowing the short to occure. I doubt it but you never know. The following thing is to probe the wires in the connector but I will have to look up the plug to be sure you don't casue a short and blow the fuse by grounding the 5A circuit.

JMC

 

JMC, I think you were right on. I took it in two days ago to a different Ford place and they just called me and said it was a short in the brake pressure switch, $300 not covered under my warranty Oh well, if it's fixed, I'll be happy spending the $300 for all the trouble this has been, next time I have a problem, I'm coming here first though.

Thanks for everyone's help.

 

Thanks JMC! I was looking through my Haynes's manual but I could not find fuse 15 in the electrical section's wiring diagrams.

 

I know this is an old trhread but how do you hook up a light to come on when fuse blows?
If i put a light across the fuse wont it wor even if the fuse is good?