1999 Mercury Sable Lots of Electrical Woes

[quote:cac74a7f29="iabpm"]Electrical problem
1999 Mercury Sable 6 cyl Two Wheel Drive Automatic 149000 miles

Hi,

First, thanks -- I've given it up to the Lord -- and you guys. Haven't heard back from the Lord yet, 'cept to be patient. I have numerous electrical problems that occurred while driving home.

I noticed that the GEM has to do with all the failed systems I have, and I did replace the GEM with a used one. I then replaced the whole fuse panel from the salvage yard as well.

1. When I turn on ignition, I get all the test lights and car DOES START

2. The car will not shift out of Park; and

3. These electrical items do NOT work:
- electric mirrors
- electric mirrors
- radio
- dome lights
- turn signals
- speedometer (when driving home, it failed)
- wiper/washers
- trunk latch
- gear shift
- inside lights
- heater or a/c controls (in radio unit) but fan is ON when key is in on position or accessory.[/quote:cac74a7f29]

You may have burned out a fusible link. Check for power to the fuse box. Also, check the master fuses in the power distribution box under the hood. You may just have a failed fuse in there.

1. When I turn on ignition, I get all the test lights and car DOES START

2. The car will not shift out of Park; and

3. These electrical items do NOT work:
- electric mirrors
- electric mirrors
- radio
- dome lights
- turn signals
- speedometer (when driving home, it failed)
- wiper/washers
- trunk latch
- gear shift
- inside lights
- heater or a/c controls (in radio unit) but fan is ON when key is in on position or accessory.

1999 Mercury Sable

I get power at any fuse I want to check. And I have NOT found a bad fuse in the IP or Engine compartment fuse panel.

The one thing that made me suspicious that the GEM was NOT the problem was that I could not make the trunk light to fo on when I jumber power from another hot fuse to the trunk light fuse. I didn 't imagine that the GEM had anything to do with the trunk lid, and there was no GEM on the schematic for that light.

I have not found a bad fuse yet and don't expect I will as I replaced the whole fuse panlel with the one from salvage yard.

Also, another problem that might be the missing clue -- I had connected a working Code Reader to the direct connector link and the reader says "Needs to be connected to a connector."

I then checked the tester on my neighbor's car and it works fine.

So I get the same reading, "Connect to Car"when it is connected to my car for either fuse panel with either GEM.

Where does the connector get it's power from? I had also checked all the Engine compartment fuses and they were good.

My first thought was "Aha -- the GEM is not working." My hope is still that the junk yard GEM is also good.

Does it need to be reset or coded? Do I need to disconnect battery for x minutes?

Also wonder if it could be Anti-theft related.

I have my mechanic puzzled and thinking on it as well.

I also found that TAC WORKS.
And door chime does NOT work.

Mechanic suggested that the ABS module might be bringing it down, and I am wondering if one of the relays in the engine compartment might be at fault.

The relays and fuses in passenger compartment should be OK as I have te3sted fuses and have had two sets of relay in place as the fuse panel has been swapped out.

The test connector gets its power from the PCM. It is starting to sound like your problem is a burned out fusible link or a broken wire somewhere in the main feed circuit.

You can check fior power at the power relay for the PCM for a start. There should be one of the wires always hot from the battery. There should also be power from the ignition switch when in the "ON" position.

Also keep in mind that another module "drawing it down" is quite unlikely as the amount of current it would have to draw to accomplish this would most surely melt wires.

Like a dummy, I checked that fuses weren't burned out, and some of the fuses for ower, but not all. So

I did them all today. Almost all the top 1/3 are without power, fuses 21 - 33 (except 31 has power); and also down low, only 7 and 8 are without power.

So that means the GEM was OK as suspected. 7 is for TPS; 8 is power to the GEM. So VOILA! Car won't shift and nothing controlled by GEM works.

So next goal, figure out where power stops on its way to fuses for TPS and GEM -- and all I have is the Haynes Manual diagrams.

Hi we are experiencing the same problem with our 99 sable. Did you ever find out what the problem was?