ford escort

[jtd.75]

Hi its me again, this time its my wifes L reg ford escort ghia (48,000 miles only) blower, indicators & electric windows suddenly stopped working, I have been told that this is a common fault with the escorts and its down to the fuse box!!! and a replacement is around the £300 quid mark plus labour. Does anyony know of a auto electric firm that refurb's such items.

[phurn]

If it is the fuse box, and it take it off first to make sure it is, id look on ebay, probably no more than a ytenner.

[jtd.75]

not sure you know what I mean, becos the fuse box also has relays mounted on the upper side on it

[d_harris]

Get down to your local breakers yard....

[Matt]

Yes fuse boxes arn't wonderful

I have one I removed from my L plate ghia - but it was a diesel so may be different? It had a fault in the box stopping the blower motor from working but everything else worked fine

[jtd.75]

i have removed the fuse box, and stripped it down to the printed cct bds and not a sign of a dry joint or corrosion in any shape form. I was use to looking for such signs when I worked on telephones (faulting) & swtch bds. I had a word with my local ford dealer who said (the mtce dept) who said that they usualy get corroded due to ingress of water, i showed him the boards and he did not think that this was the case this time!!! and in any case a new one costs £417.50 with the vat. The car never been left out in the rain or even been driven in the rain, it belonged to my F/inlaw and has just done 46,000miles and he bought it new from the dealer in 1994. When my wife got it off her dad two years ago it had just done 11,000 miles. How do I get my hands on a wiring diagram for the car

[d_harris]

I *think* Haynes manuals tend to having wiring diagrams

[bmcecosse]

Just clean it all up - and re-assemble. Chances are it will work fine now.

[jtd.75]

Hi BMC wouldthat and still knowt, I rang a firm BBA-reman in kent who said that they have worked on these b4 and it it will come back refurbed, I whent onto there webb page and it seems a big out and they recon it will cost about £100. I know I could most prob get a cheaper one from a scrappy but then how long and in what state will it be. I dont supose you how or where i can down load a wiring diagram for a L Reg escort ghia from, I have scrolled the net with out much luck

[phurn]

just buy a haynes off ebay for a fiver it has every wiring diagram for yoru car under the sun, then get a fusebox from ebay or a scrapper for a tenner...... spending anymore than that on an l reg escort would, frankly. be daft.

[jtd.75]

I do not consider a L reg escort that is in show room condition with only 47,000 miles from new as daft to spend money on, and I hate being over charged for things just because no one knows how to fault find things anymore, and as for going to a scrapper, I would be more likly to get one in a worse state than the one thats already in it. I have had the the fuse box out and there is not a mark on it therefore I recon that the printed scct board has a fault on it some were.You get more satisfaction out of solving a problem rather than just changing things (poke & hope)

[Matt]

There is a wiring diragram in the back of the Haynes manual

I think there is also one in the ford Technical Information System (TIS) which is easily avaliable on ebay.

If you want I will post you my old fuse box (from my old L plate TD Ghia) for the cost of postage... It may help show if the fusebox is the problem? I did have to modify the wiring to get the blower motor working properly though

[phurn]

if you want to spend £100 getting a £10 part repaired then thts your perogative, but it seems daft to me to throw good money around, bearing in mind that if its repaired to standard theres no garuantee it wont break again, or you could go to a breakers yard where, for arguments sake you get a board that lasts 2-3 years for a tenner, at that rate it would take 20 years for the repair to pay for itself, and ita not as if its a big job to replace one either, couple of hours on your knees and hey presto! job done.

infact you might be better alround getting a fuse box from somethign else and adapting the wiring to fit, draw your own wiring diagram afterwards to keep a track of your modifications and never have the problem again. its a few more hours work, cutting, chopping and adding wires... but the saving is there to be made.

[jtd.75]

First of all my nearest scrapper is a 40 mile round trip secondly I know of people who have gone to scrappers for parts only for it to last a couple of months and thirdly seeing as the boards were a well known fault on the escorts ( according to a RAC man that I know) it would be like buying a lottery ticket and hoping to get a good one. And lastly the firm that are going to re-furb it for me down in Kent have a very good reputation in this field and also give a guarantee in the refurb, I have not known of any scrapper to do that. And at least I know that I will have peace of mind that if it fails they will refix it. I also believe that the motor industry use them for refurbs. second hand is a false economy

[phurn]

I'm not saying that it wouldn't be a good job, just that in this instance replace rather than renew would be economically a better descision. Breakers on ebay will sell you stuff cheap as chips.

Though I still think sourcing a reliable fusebox from another car and adapting the wiring would be the most sensible long term solution, cheap, easyish and you won't have the same problem again.

Don't get me wrong, if this was a serious classic then id be all up for investing money in a refurb, but I genuinly can't ever see mid 90's cars becoming classics at any time in the future, most of them just have too many complications to ever be restored by a guy in his garage. Therefore I can't ever see a return on spending 5 maybe 10 times more than you could spend.

[jtd.75]

Hi ph, I hear what you are saying, but like I have already said this car is in show room condition not a speck of rust in sight it has never been out in the rain nor driven above 50 mph it belonged to my father inlaw who was so finicky (think thats how you spell it) and when he died 2 years ago it had only done 11,000 miles he had the local ford dealer service it every year, and like my wife says he would be horrified if he was alive today and seeing me trying to fix it and not the local ford dealer. I know it will never become a classic in the true sence of the word. They say they want first refusal if we ever want to sell it. I know that they are a peeved about me not letting them do the work on it, can't afford their silly hourly rates for a start. When I rang them up to tell them about the fault they were as nice as pie saying bring it in and we will sort it out for you. You should have seen their face when I just took in the unit, their attitude change drastically when they knew that they were not going to get any big bucks from me

[Matt]

I agree with JTD.

I really like the mk5b escorts (I managed to kill mine by runing out of water on the A34) and if I had a spotless example I would definately be doing my best to keep it that way. Just think, in 5 years there may only be 100 or so of these in 5 years time and I would hate to see them being botched dogs due to dodgy repairs or even well done repairs that arn't right!

BTW I am slowly bringing a rusty '95 transit back to being spotless!

[jtd.75]

Hi Matt,good for you. If more people looked after their cars in stead of trying to keep up with the Jones's I think then there wood be break downs on the road. In our village there is a lady who drives a allegro and its in pristene condition and would not be out of place in a 70's drama. How many of our modern day cars with all there fancy electronics go faulty through no fault of its owners

[StaffsMoggie]

Mk4/5/5a//6 Escorts are probably some of the last cars that can be diy maintained. The vans are very useful! Sure, they rust, but once they have been repaired properly and well protected they last years. I wouldn't be without my van, a very practical vehicle that cost me 150 quid three years ago!

[jtd.75]

Hi Matt did you manage to send off the item.Jimmy