About 4 days ago I parked my 1997 XL, turned it off, and went inside for the evening. Everything was working perfectly, including the stereo, in which I left my tape adapted used for listening to my ipod. When I came out the next morning, I started the truck and the lights on the stereo panel were not on, the tape would not eject and the stereo was buzzing incessantly, getting louder and softer with the variation of the RPM's. I pushed every button, including the power ****, a hunderd times, but got zero response. I had to go to work, so I just drove it with the buzzing, parked it and went to work. When I came back that evening and started the truck and drove home, it buzzed for about half of the way home, and then quit. However, the lights were still out on the stereo panel, and no buttons worked. When I got out of the truck that night, the headlight alarm started going off like I had left the lights on, but they were off. I turned them off, on, off, on, closed the door, opened the door, etc, but nothing worked - When that door was open, the headlight alarm was going off. So, I thought I might have a blown fuse, and was right. I replaced a 25 from under my dash. The lights on the stereo panel came back on, but still none of the buttons worked and the headlight alarm was going off when the door was open. I decided to pull all of the fuses, one by one, just to see if one was blown that I missed. However, they were all intact. So, I opened the fuse box under mu hood, but they were all fine as well. I put everything back and started the truck, and the buttons started working on the stereo. I ejected the tape adapter, but the radio doesn't work. The dang thing still dings when the door is open. It also seems like while it is turned off something has a tiny drain on the battery. It is harder to turn over if it sits all day since this has happened, than if has been running recently, of within the last hour or two. CAN ANYONE HELP???

 

Now, the radio works, but still works even when the car is turned off...

 

Has it been raining there? Have you read any of the threads about rain leaking in & wreaking havoc? Do you have ANY aftermarket electronics (RKE, CB, etc.) or wiring damage (wreck, fire, etc.)?

 

the radio is most likely bad. the radio has an illumination circuit which if it goes bad could cause the chimer to stay on when the keys are off. go to your local autoparts store and get a set of Ford radio removal tools and remove the radio and the problems will most likely go away.
Edward

 

Before things went bad, it had not rained for about a week. However, the day things went bad, it did rain the night before, but only very lightly, and I didn't see any water under/around the dash. I have read all of the threads about bad GEM modules as a result of leaky windshields, but the reason I didn't think it was that is because all other electrical systems work perfectly. I have NO aftermarket electronic parts or systems, other than the tape adapter I used for my ipod, and my truck has never been flooded or on fire.

 

The 2 symptoms could be seperate problems.

If you bend a wire coat hanger in a U shape, you can use this to remove the radio. There is a display problem fix, but the symptom list you have, it does not seem like the list of problems you are having ( you have more ).

What was the fuse that you repalced ? You only noted the size, not what it was for.

The dinging problem could be part of the radio problem ( thus the reason to remove it, to see if the lights on dinger continues ) or not. Need to do the simple problem diagnoses step to make sure.

Soaked GEM would have the radio working all the time ( along with the list of other gremlins ), not the symptom list you have, which is not working.

 

These pics show how to pull the radio.

 

It was the radio! As soon as I pulled it, all the problems went away and the battery was no longer being drained. Thanks so much for your help! You saved me a pile of money!

 

Interesting that you mention the buzzing--there's some device in speakers or the radios that eliminates this. It must have gone bad, causing other problems.

The Brush trucks at the fire station have this buzzing on their 2 way radio speakers mounted in dash. They aren't faulty, but the Dept. was too cheap to upgrade to a decent radio system. And, surprise surprise, we have crappy radio reception both in listening and speaking...enough ranting. Congrats on the fixed prob. Are you going to get a nice aftermarket stereo now???

 

I did. It's a very nice stereo, and now I can play mp3's! I should have upgraded sooner!