First off, car is a 1998, has 68,000 miles, Automatic. Started off with a shifting problem on the transmission with the previous owner, they replaced the transmission solenoid pack and i guess the problem either went away or it never fixed it because when we got it, it did the occasional "erractic shifting" while driving. Well last week, we smelt something electrical burning in the interior, didnt think much of it. Couple days ago, at a red light, the transmission just stopped shifting all together. Towed it to a shop and they pulled 3 codes p0125, P0460 and P1747. P1747 is the solenoid short circuit short which is the part that was replaced that obviously leads me to believe its in the wiring/PCM and i cant help but go back to that electrical burning smell last week that draws me to the PCM. Anyone want to give some input on this?
-
Welcome to the Contour Enthusiasts Group, the best resource for the Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique.
You can register to join the community.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
Is this signs of a bad PCM?
- Thread starter Rob1
- Start date
ukravit
CEG'er
I have had 2 98 Contours and both of them had a burning smell that was traced back to the wire for the fan where it connects to the fuse box. The engine harness on both had to be repaired because of insulation falling apart. Kind of a chore, but they only real way to check the engine harness is to remove and inspect it.
dennyb
Veteran CEG'er
you can look for an updated harness in the Junk Yard. Or svttour sells modified harnesses out of newer contours (specializes in the v6 harness only). They can be hard to find and if you get one to send to him to modify you can speed up the repair. You need a updated 98 harness or a 99 harness that is for return style (two fuel lines) fuel system only. Late 99 and 2000 cars are return-less (single fuel line).
I strongly suspect that if you were actually smelling the PCM possibly melting you would be losing far more systems than just the transmission control. That type of loss of one control output only generally is internal and makes no smell at all because nothing melts. Chip just fails in an extremely small local area inside. The PCM is also under the hood so harder to smell it. I'd be looking at the big red and green wires going into the cabin fusebox, the blower motor will start acting up when those wires melt. Pull fusebox loose from its' mounting and let it hang down and check the wires going in the back, mine melted too, most of them in the scrapyard are the same way, the wire connectors used there are too small. If solenoid wiring is bad I'd look at the portion outside the car that weather affects first, the part most likely to fail. '98 models are horrible about heat getting to the main underhood harness, the wires crack everywhere.
The P0125 insufficient coolant temp code will prevent trans from shifting correctly too, the PCM will give shifting strategies for a stone cold trans or may even go into limp mode which will shift like pure crap.
Not shifting AT ALL may mean much deeper problem, or the trans exploding inside forward clutch like almost all of these do when trans gets old, the instances of erratic shifting that go away can easily be evidence of that happening little by little. The forward clutch drum breaks off small pieces of the edge bit by bit until enough has broken off to let the forward clutch pressure plate spring out and strike the planetary gear housing, you lose all motion at that time. 68K is early to do that but it has happened before.
Or the pump driveshaft has stripped the corners off to make no pressure at all, since pump quits pumping.
The valve body has wear issues associated with the EPC solenoid that 1747 code refers to, the valve wears to leak and EPC pressure goes high to make the big blowup I described happen faster.
Although PCMs can and do fail I would suspect other issues far faster, PCM failure is very rare, even though everybody wants to blame them. Virtually every one I sold when working for the parts people did nothing to cure problems, it got to where I cautioned them big time and they STILL wanted to get one, of course no warranty on that once installed. They all cried about it when they couldn't get money back. Blaming PCM is the mark of someone who does not work on cars in my view. One should 100% guarantee all the rest of system is correct before going there. Far more likely to be a wiring issue.
The P0125 insufficient coolant temp code will prevent trans from shifting correctly too, the PCM will give shifting strategies for a stone cold trans or may even go into limp mode which will shift like pure crap.
Not shifting AT ALL may mean much deeper problem, or the trans exploding inside forward clutch like almost all of these do when trans gets old, the instances of erratic shifting that go away can easily be evidence of that happening little by little. The forward clutch drum breaks off small pieces of the edge bit by bit until enough has broken off to let the forward clutch pressure plate spring out and strike the planetary gear housing, you lose all motion at that time. 68K is early to do that but it has happened before.
Or the pump driveshaft has stripped the corners off to make no pressure at all, since pump quits pumping.
The valve body has wear issues associated with the EPC solenoid that 1747 code refers to, the valve wears to leak and EPC pressure goes high to make the big blowup I described happen faster.
Although PCMs can and do fail I would suspect other issues far faster, PCM failure is very rare, even though everybody wants to blame them. Virtually every one I sold when working for the parts people did nothing to cure problems, it got to where I cautioned them big time and they STILL wanted to get one, of course no warranty on that once installed. They all cried about it when they couldn't get money back. Blaming PCM is the mark of someone who does not work on cars in my view. One should 100% guarantee all the rest of system is correct before going there. Far more likely to be a wiring issue.
You're going to fuse box to fix the blower fan, you need to trace down the solenoid wiring at the trans or under the battery box. The fuse box issue is where wire comes right out of the box, you change the box or part of it to cure the problem unless you are proficient at wire patching.
I strongly suspect that if you were actually smelling the PCM possibly melting you would be losing far more systems than just the transmission control. That type of loss of one control output only generally is internal and makes no smell at all because nothing melts. Chip just fails in an extremely small local area inside. The PCM is also under the hood so harder to smell it. I'd be looking at the big red and green wires going into the cabin fusebox, the blower motor will start acting up when those wires melt. Pull fusebox loose from its' mounting and let it hang down and check the wires going in the back, mine melted too, most of them in the scrapyard are the same way, the wire connectors used there are too small. If solenoid wiring is bad I'd look at the portion outside the car that weather affects first, the part most likely to fail. '98 models are horrible about heat getting to the main underhood harness, the wires crack everywhere.
The P0125 insufficient coolant temp code will prevent trans from shifting correctly too, the PCM will give shifting strategies for a stone cold trans or may even go into limp mode which will shift like pure crap.
Not shifting AT ALL may mean much deeper problem, or the trans exploding inside forward clutch like almost all of these do when trans gets old, the instances of erratic shifting that go away can easily be evidence of that happening little by little. The forward clutch drum breaks off small pieces of the edge bit by bit until enough has broken off to let the forward clutch pressure plate spring out and strike the planetary gear housing, you lose all motion at that time. 68K is early to do that but it has happened before.
Or the pump driveshaft has stripped the corners off to make no pressure at all, since pump quits pumping.
The valve body has wear issues associated with the EPC solenoid that 1747 code refers to, the valve wears to leak and EPC pressure goes high to make the big blowup I described happen faster.
Although PCMs can and do fail I would suspect other issues far faster, PCM failure is very rare, even though everybody wants to blame them. Virtually every one I sold when working for the parts people did nothing to cure problems, it got to where I cautioned them big time and they STILL wanted to get one, of course no warranty on that once installed. They all cried about it when they couldn't get money back. Blaming PCM is the mark of someone who does not work on cars in my view. One should 100% guarantee all the rest of system is correct before going there. Far more likely to be a wiring issue.
What does the P0125 code usually lead towards? Is that the temp sensor in the thermostat housing?
I'll have to take a good look and test the wires, the wires look alittle worn at some areas so who knows. Are these auto transmissions known to go out around 68k?