Ok, I know this thread is old, but what fuse was blowing in your case? There seems to be some question as to what fuse we are talking about in this thread. He states that his windows and interior lights were not working, but then he goes on to say that he's only having issues with fuse 15, which has nothing to do with the windows and dome light. Was fuse 14 or fuse 15 blowing in your case? Also, could you be more descriptive about the location of the connectors that had the loose/shorting pins? What were the connectors attached to/used for, and where exactly were they on the doors? Were the shorted connectors inside the wiring looms (under the sheathing and tape where you couldn't see them)? Also, how did you fix them? Did you buy new connectors, or just replace them with something completely different (fabricate them yourself)?

 

My #14 fuse under the dash keeps blowing 1997 Ford F-150 4.2 V-6. It works my power windows and dome light. In my manual is says it controls the Interior lamps and accessory delay Relay.

I have been trying to find the problem for over a week now can someone please point me in the right directions

Thanks for any advise.

 

I've been working on my problem for over a month. Just as an FYI, my background starting from high school, then during my military service, and then through college is both electrical and electronics. I have a 1999 F250 light duty truck, and it has the same problem. There is apparently a wide range of model years that have the same wiring and the same problem. I'm floored by the number of people that have had, and are still having this problem with their trucks. What really irritates me is that these truck owners have posted all these questions to multiple forums like this on the internet, but almost all of them haven't had the courtesy to post their solutions to the problem once they've fixed them. This pisses me, as well as many of our fellow truck owners off, who use these forums to solve common problems with our trucks! People need to contribute information to the forum, and not just take from it! That's what these forums are for! I'm more pissed that Ford hasn't had a mandatory recall ordered given the prevalence of this problem on so many of their trucks. It can truly turn into a fire hazard if it gets bad enough. The fuse panel should not be the loophole for Ford designers to produce CRAPPY wiring harnesses and vehicle wiring designs, enabling Ford to absolve itself from fixing obvious design flaws in their vehicles wiring! I've seen guys posting about this problem in their trucks shortly after their trucks were even 5 years old! Some might have been even newer than that!

Anyways, keep in touch with me offline as well, and we can share what we learn with each other. scttmares at yhoo. I will be sure to post the solution to this problem once and for all once I figure it out. I've paid for and downloaded a bunch of diagrams for the wiring of these type trucks, and in looking over those, I've found that the 5 relays in the interior fuse panel all seem to work in conjunction with each other. The relays are controlled by the GEM module. The first and primary relay in the circuit is the battery saver relay. This is relay #2 in the fuse panel. It is one of the smaller of the two type of relays installed there, and if you pop it out, you can install fuse #14, and it won't blow. However, you will also get no functionality from any of the circuits that this fuse and relay control. The stuff not working after you remove the battery saver relay will include all the devices that were affected by the fuse 14 being blown. That's because relay#2 is the relay which ALL current for fuse 14 flows through. The battery saver relay is basically the on/off switch for the entire fuse 14 circuit. The GEM module controls when the battery saver relay is turned on and off. I don't know the logic of the GEM internals, but the GEM seems to activate the battery saver relay as soon as the door is open. This allows for the interior lighting to turn on so that you can see to get your key into the ignition. Other devices in the fuse 14 circuit will be activated once the ignition key is turned to the run or acc position. The most important of these devices is your windows. The battery saver relay will also cut power to the windows and lights after you have turned off the engine, and before any door has been opened. Once a door is opened after stopping the engine, the GEM cuts power to the windows, but continues to allow the lights to remain on.

What I've found through a bit of measuring and troubleshooting is that, at least in my situation, when the circuit isn't completely in an all out short situation, I still have roughly 4 amps of current constantly running through the Fuse 14 circuit when the battery saver relay is engaged, and when the door is open(key not inserted or turned). This may be the normal state condition for this circuit. I'll check the reading again later when the key is turned to the run position. Four amps isn't much, and it shouldn't be enough to blow the 15A fuse. The short circuit situation I'm facing is random, and at some point, when I slam a door, when something is moved, when a vibration in the body occurs, or whenever the right condition presents itself, an exposed wire comes into contact with ground somewhere, and that will obviously blow the fuse.

To do some initial troubleshooting, I briefly inserted a wire across fuse 14 position, and although it didn't immediately start glowing red, I could feel through the insulation that the wire was warming up. After a few minutes, something moved in the car, or in the wiring, and the short out condition activated, causing the insulation on the wire started smoking and melting off the wire. NOT GOOD! This can start electrical fires, and burn up your wiring harness, so be careful doing this kind of thing for anything more than troubleshooting for very brief periods of time. Never leave it unattended like that. By doing what I did with the wire across the fuse though, I was able to see what was and wasn't still working while the 'fuse wasn't blown'. During the brief period when the short activated, what I found is that the both the battery saver relay(#2), and the interior lighting relay(#1) were both getting super hot. The reason I know this, is because afterwards, both of the smaller relays were pretty hard to pull out. Apparently the plastic fuse panel was starting to stick to them. When I pulled both relays, a visual check showed that the metal blades of the load side of the relays #1 and #2 were discolored from the high heat. Although I do risk burning out the relays by doing this, I should also be able to find a melted pathway to the short if it keeps happening.

My strategy to figuring this problem out was to divide up the big Fuse 14 circuit into smaller individual circuits. To do this, I could just start cutting wires, but first, I thought I'd go the easy route and start pulling relays(switches that activate the other parts of the larger circuit). I'm using the relay sockets as test points in the larger circuit to figure out what part of the circuit is causing the problem. Based on the wiring diagram, since ALL current goes through the 'master switch' of the fuse 14 circuit(the battery saver relay #2), whatever part of the entire circuit that is shorting, is obviously also going to cause the battery saver relay to heat up. I started by watching the current levels change on my ammeter while pulling and installing different relays. What I found is that the interior lighting circuit relay(relay #1) adds about 3+ amps to the load when I install it. That seems a bit high to me, but I'm good with it. It's not enough to blow the 15A fuse. IMO, lighting circuits like these(without halogen or other such high wattage light bulbs) should be more like an amp or so depending on which type, and how many lights are on at the same time inside the passenger compartment.

Regardless of the whatever the normal current levels in the fuse 14 circuit are, I just figured that if I pull relay #1, and that prevents fuse 14 from blowing any more, at least I will be able to use my windows. If you are in need of the interior lights though, of course they won't work with relay #1 pulled out. As long as I can keep my windows operating, I'll be able to pass my safety inspection while I work to figure out the shorting issue in the lights part of the larger circuit. By subdividing the circuits using the relays, I will be able to narrow down the general location of the short in the wiring. If the fuse stops blowing with the interior lighting relay removed, then that tells me that the short is located in the interior lighting section of the fuse 14 circuit. I'm also considering seeing if I can find a light bulb/power resistor combination that can handle the current, and then just install that into the fuse 14 position. That way, I might have a way to monitor the varying current levels in that circuit. I might also be able to watch the intensity of the light as I bang and move things around. While I'm moving the cabling, if it gets super bright, then I have found the area of the short. Once, all I did was close the passenger door, and the fuse blew. It may be over on the right side of the wiring harness.

 

I have the same problem and I called ford dealership and they said there is no recall on mine. I was wondering what year model is your truck. So I can double check it.
Thanks for any help

 

That post is over 6 years old and I don't think the member is still active.

 

Had same problem. Fuse "14" on my 1999 f150 4.2 gave me problems. Ended up being relay #4 in the dash fuse panel. Went thru everything and ended up being a 10 dollor relay. Was caused by wires in dome light exposed and touching the metal roof. If windows etc. Stop working there is obviously exposed wired somewhere touching metal or another wire. Untill the wires are found and addressed will keep blowing. In my case it would blow fuse 14 and relay 4..

 

I vought my 1999 f150 xlt from a friend . I heard on here about a recall. Does that mean if you bought the truck third party and not directly from a dealer you can take it to ford for help? I have always bought my vehicles with cash and never leased, will i be able to get recall help?

 

That is a cruise control recall and applies to any owner regardless of truck age. Go to this site and enter your VIN:

https://owner.ford.com/tools/account...e/recalls.html

Any Ford dealer will do the recall at no charge.

Depending on state of registration, there is also a recall on the gas tank straps.

 

Thnx glc . Will definitely be looking into . I appreciate you answering what may seem a dumb question.

 

@Jkelsey82:
[QUOTE=Jkelsey82;5204684]Had same problem. Fuse "14" on my 1999 f150 4.2 gave me problems. Ended up being relay #4 in the dash fuse panel. Went thru everything and ended up being a 10 dollor relay. Was caused by wires in dome light exposed and touching the metal roof. If windows etc. Stop working there is obviously exposed wired somewhere touching metal or another wire. Untill the wires are found and addressed will keep blowing. In my case it would blow fuse 14 and relay 4..[/QUOTE

So, did you replace the relay, or did you fix the wiring, or did you do both? Did you actually find exposed wires in your truck, or were you just making an assumption that that's what the problem likely was? I just pulled a relay(I think relay #2), to get my fuse 14 to stop blowing. I'm getting tired of not having interior lights though. Would be good to fix the shorting problem for good. I pulled my dome light and checked it, but I didn't see anything obvious. Need to track this down.

 

Yes i actually found exposed wires. I found 2 exposed sections that were under the driver side window switch. Also a small portion somehow got exposed above the dome light.. once i taped them up and replaced the relay its worked fine. There seems to be quite a bit in the electrical thats associated with that. I have a diagram i will post if thatll help any. It seemed to me like if anything in the system was shorting it would short my light. Hence window switch wires touching afgecting lights as well. I am new to this forum so i have to figure out how to upoad it but i will post the electrical diagram i have in a minute. Good luck

 

How far from the drivers window switch was the short? How many inches? Were any of the wires being pinched at all, or was it your opinion that simple vibrations were the cause of the shorts?

 

Was the window switch short touching the metal door frame, or were the exposed wires touching each other?

 

The dome lights in these trucks actually screw to the top of the metal truck cab. Was the short there touching the metal truck cab, shorting to the dome light casing, or were the exposed wires touching each other?

 

This problem with these trucks is so widespread, so troublesome, and so hard to pinpoint because of its intermittent nature, that the more detailed information you can provide, the more helpful your information will be, and the more that literally thousands of owners will be helped in getting their trucks fixed properly. Any detail diagrams, whether done on the computer or hand drawn, pictures, or very detailed text description of where you found the problems would be of great help.