Hello all, I have ran into an issue where i have lost some of my electrical functions. I started hearing what sounded like an electrical short under the steering wheel area, soon after i lost my instrument panel lights, my alarm for the headlights being left on, fog lights, tail lights, when i drive with cruse control on and turn on the lights, the lit symbol for the cruse goes off.
I have some say its the start of the ECM going bad. Can anyone help shed some light on this?
Thanks, Dfelt.

 

Welcome to the forum

2004 is the first year for Rangers to get full networked(digital) dash and Smart Junction Box(SJB) Body computer

Dash has gauges with needles but they are Digital, read here on Instrument Cluster Test Mode: http://www.carlogic.org/bg/data/Ford...ler%20mode.pdf

I am sure some fuses are blown if you heard electrical shorts and lights are not working, so you can check them
But 2004 and up are hard to diagnose with the Digital Dash and SJB

 

Thank you for the feed back, i will dig a little deeper and see if i can find something. Looking underneath where i heard the noise, i see a relay that is red in color, mounted to the steering wheel bracket. Any ideas on what this is for? Could have been that relay making the noise i heard.
Thanks,
Dfelt

 

No, I wouldn't know what relay that would be

Pull it out and see what doesn't work, then you will know, also shake it, if it rattles its bad

 

How odd, I took the interior apart to see if i could find a wire or something that would cause my issues. To my surprise it was very clean and very few wires that ran behind there and to the instrument panel. After looking for an hour or so i just gave up and the truck sat for a couple days before i could put it back together. I put the battery in the garage and let it slow charge during this time and when i finally got it done and put the battery in, it started up and everything worked. ????? I would have rather found something then to go through that and not know the cause. Now its in the back of my head, will it do it again. No bad fuse, no replaced parts, just started working again. Odd to say the least! Thank you for your input, I wish i could post the issue to help others if needed.