Where can I get replacement wiring that goes over the passinger front tire in the wheel well?

CLINT S

MEMBER
2001 MERCURY MARQUIS
210 MILES

The guys that were towing my car after the ball joint broke used a pickup and chain instead of a tow truck. Not only did they pop my tire, but they stripped or broke all the wires in the wheel well (front passenger.) I have pieced the wires back together but I fear I made some errors. The car starts now. But the a/c doesn't come on. Well, unless the head lights are on and then the defrost blows! The ABS light is on and I think the air bag light blinked when I tried the signal! I haven't traced the wires since reconnecting them but i'm hoping that as a group they have some kind of connectors on the ends that just plug in. There was a T in the wheel wheel so i'm hoping for 3 connectors. If replacement wiring exists, where would I find it? Thanks!

3 Replies

CLINT S

MEMBER
3 POSTS

Fuse 16 is the only one not getting power now and it controls the turn signals among other things. The fuses under the hood seem fine. Anyone know the color of the wires for fuse 16 or the turn signals? If I had a credit card or bank account, i'd certainly pay for this info.

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Tuesday, August 30th, 2011 AT 4:30 PM

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,738 POSTS

The place to look for the harness is at a salvage yard. New ones are typically only available from the manufacturer and are purchased by the dealer for warranty repairs. Otherwise it is normal to just repair them because they're very expensive.

Broken ball joints and crashes are REAL common on Ford products. A lot of damage results even before the tow truck / truck and chain arrives, so don't be too hard on the guys who moved it afterward. If you want to blame someone, blame the idiot designers at Ford.

I have to ask, just to be sure, but you did match the wires for repair by their colors, right? Did you solder the splices and seal them with heat-shrink tubing? Electrical tape is not appropriate as it will unravel into a gooey mess and let moisture in to corrode the connections. The Chrysler parts departments have some really nice tubing with hot melt glue inside to seal out moisture. You might find that at the other auto parts stores too. This is even more important near tires that will spray rain water around.

When you have the wrong circuits turning on, very often the cause is a missing or corroded ground wire. Ford, and many other manufacturers place the ground wires from multiple circuits into one common terminal, then bolt that to the body. When it's disconnected, current from the circuit you turned on can't complete its path to ground so it looks for an alternate path. That is backwards through some other circuit tied to the same ground terminal.

If necessary, I think I can get into the Ford web site on a different computer to look for the wiring diagram, but that is more useful when troubleshooting one specific circuit. For your problem, a better place to start is by rechecking the repaired wires and the grounds.

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Wednesday, August 31st, 2011 AT 3:31 AM

CLINT S

MEMBER
3 POSTS

Thanks for the reply. I had used some new wire and a whole roll of electrical tape. There are about 30 wires and the majority of them were still connected at least by a few strands so I don't know how I could have got one crossed but it could have happened. If I can get it straight, i'll get the heat-shrink tubing. Thanks for that heads up. I'd love to know the colors for the wires associated w/ fuse 16 if possible.

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Wednesday, August 31st, 2011 AT 4:26 PM