F150 elcetric windows not working
Jay-T
a 4.6L engine.
The problem he is having is that both electric windows stopped working at
the same time.
Here is some additional information in case it helps. Before this happened,
he was having a problem with the overhead light in the cab. To get the
light to come on, he would need to push up on the ceiling near the light, so
obviously there was some type of loose connection there. Now, I'm pretty
sure he said that neither the electric windows nor the overhead light work
at all.
He did try checking and replacing/bypassing all of the fuses but that didn't
work.
Shortly before the electric windows stopped working, he had to replace the
entire rear differential and axle. After that, everything was working. But
about a day later he heard a noise in the universal joint and he had to drop
the entire drive shaft and replace the rear universal joint. Immediately
after putting the drive shaft and universal back together, the electric
windows stopped working. I don't see how those two things could be related,
but that is the sequence of events.
He has the door panels off, and he was able to get some print-outs of the
wiring diagram and what looks like the locations for various relays,
switches, and a "GED"(?) or "GEM"(?) controller.
Now, after all of that explanation and background, here are the questions:
Ordinarily, how hard would something like this be for an experienced repair
shop to diagnose and locate where the problem may be located and determine
what need to be replaced or done to fix this? I know that electrical
problems can be difficult to locate, but is there a fairly simple process
that a shop can go through to locate the exact source of the problem the
works in MOST cases? He doesn't have much money, so he can't afford to pay
for hours and hours of time trying to locate the problem.
Or, are there some things that he could do or check or try on his own to try
to isolate where the problem is? For example, if he can find where some of
the relays are located, can he try doing some type of jumper across each one
to check to see if that solves the problem?
He could also go to a junk yard and remove and buy various relays, switches,
and the GED/GEM? etc., if that might be worth trying.
Thanks for any ideas or suggestions.
OldHarleyRider
My windows on my 1999 F-150 quit once. Both windows quit.
Called my buddy, a Ford technician and he said the master
switch on the drivers door was bad. I replaced the window
controller on the drivers door (in the arm rest) and everything
has been working everasince. It takes less than 10 minutes to change..
Jay-T
Thanks. I'll pass that on. Hopefully that will be all he needs to do.
That would be great if that turns out to be the problem.
Jay-T
Thanks again. I did pass the information on to my friend. He asked me to
ask you if you recall whether the overhead cab light also would not work
when your electric windows stopped working.
OldHarleyRider
Okay Jay-T:
Outside of regular normal maintenance, I have had only two problems.
Both problems were electrical. I replaced the switch on the arm rest
on the drivers side (windows stopped working). The other problem was
the main fuse block rusting and shorting out. Overhead light stopped
working, then trailer lights stopped working, then wipers operated
abnormally. Ford has a major problem with water leaking in at top of
windshield. Water runs down pillar post on drivers side and onto the
fuse block. The roof of the vehicle has indented grooves running from
front to back on both sides. Windshield needs extra sealer around these
grooves where they meet the glass. The fuse block was around $85.00 and
came with all new fuses. It only takes a 10mm wrench to remove the fuse
block.
OldHarleyRider
I had a cracked windshield replaced and the installer told me about the
sealant problem....
--
FXDLRIDER2 (SKYPE)
Jay-T
> Jay-T wrote:
>>
>> Thanks again. I did pass the information on to my friend. He asked
>> me to ask you if you recall whether the overhead cab light also
>> would not work when your electric windows stopped working.
>>
>>
> Okay Jay-T:
>
> Outside of regular normal maintenance, I have had only two problems.
> Both problems were electrical. I replaced the switch on the arm rest
> on the drivers side (windows stopped working). The other problem was
> the main fuse block rusting and shorting out. Overhead light stopped
> working, then trailer lights stopped working, then wipers operated
> abnormally. Ford has a major problem with water leaking in at top of
> windshield. Water runs down pillar post on drivers side and onto the
> fuse block. The roof of the vehicle has indented grooves running from
> front to back on both sides. Windshield needs extra sealer around
> these grooves where they meet the glass. The fuse block was around
> $85.00 and came with all new fuses. It only takes a 10mm wrench to
> remove the fuse block.
Thanks again. That is very interesting and I'll pass this info on to my
friend. I wonder if maybe the fuse box does have something to do with his
situation. He did start out having a problem with the overhead light, then
right after he replaced a universal joint he had the problem with the
windows not working. And, when he was replacing the universal (and the rear
differential for two days before that), he was working on the truck outside
and it was raining off and on, and he had the hood up part of the time while
working.
Jay-T
>>> My windows on my 1999 F-150 quit once. Both windows quit.
>>> Called my buddy, a Ford technician and he said the master
>>> switch on the drivers door was bad. I replaced the window
>>> controller on the drivers door (in the arm rest) and everything
>>> has been working everasince. It takes less than 10 minutes to
>>> change..
>>
>> Thanks again. I did pass the information on to my friend. He asked
>> me to ask you if you recall whether the overhead cab light also
>> would not work when your electric windows stopped working.
>>
>>
> Okay Jay-T:
>
> Outside of regular normal maintenance, I have had only two problems.
> Both problems were electrical. I replaced the switch on the arm rest
> on the drivers side (windows stopped working). The other problem was
> the main fuse block rusting and shorting out. Overhead light stopped
> working, then trailer lights stopped working, then wipers operated
> abnormally. Ford has a major problem with water leaking in at top of
> windshield. Water runs down pillar post on drivers side and onto the
> fuse block. The roof of the vehicle has indented grooves running from
> front to back on both sides. Windshield needs extra sealer around
> these grooves where they meet the glass. The fuse block was around
> $85.00 and came with all new fuses. It only takes a 10mm wrench to
> remove the fuse block.
Here's the latest:
My friend went ahead and bought a new master switch and put it in, but that
didn't fix it.
Then (we should have done this first), we unplugged the new electric windows
master switch and used the test light to see if power was getting to the
switch. We checked all of the wires going into the switch and no power
shows up on any of them.
We figured out which wire on the switch was supposed to be the power wire
and ran power to that point from a different source. That made the windows
work. So, the problem is the power wire to the master switch. There must
be a break in that wire somewhere, maybe where the bundles of wires go
through from the door near the hinges into the main body, but we can't find
the break.
If we can figure out where that same wire (with the same color code) comes
out of the main fuse block, we could run a new wire from there to the master
window switch.
You mentioned that it only takes a 10mm wrench to remove the fuse block, but
we haven't figured out how to do that yet. We'll look at that some more.
Hopefully, if we can get the fuse block off, we can see where the correct
wire comes into the block at the fuse for the power windows -- then run a
new wire from there. With the fuse block on, we can't see the wire that we
need to get to.
If that doesn't work, we'll probably just run a new wire from an un-fused
live power source to the master switch and put an in-line fuse in that wire.
