My car is haunted

[Cobey]

Should have done your own brakes and use the savings to pay the dealership to investigate your other issue.

Intermittent electrical gremlins are the absolute worst though.

My Jack broke/failed last time I tried doing my own brakes. I dont have a great, level surface to Jack a car up either. If not for that, I probably would have

[Cobey]

Sell it.

It's definitely on the table, unfortunately.

What are you looking at to purchase?

Nothing exciting. Even if I had the budget, the supply locally is kinda nonexistent. So if I went that route, it would be something with a usable back seat for two car seats.

I'm thinking Accord or similarly sized sedan. I'm fighting the crossover, but some of those could be had for cheaper.

[Old_Kid]

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[Cobey]

Nothing exciting. Even if I had the budget, the supply locally is kinda nonexistent. So if I went that route, it would be something with a usable back seat for two car seats.
I'm thinking Accord or similarly sized sedan. I'm fighting the crossover, but some of those could be had for cheaper.

It is what it is. Corvette left and Chrysler Town and Country came home. Dog stayed though.

I'm struggling with it but I know it needs to be done eventually

[Kenneth Noisewater]

Train’s shot.

[Old_Kid]

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[Old_Kid]

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[Sarge]

Could be as simple as a little rain got into your electric door lock switch on the driver's door. Do you recall leaving your window cracked open when driving when it was raining?

[Cobey]

Train’s shot.

So that's why Mando's gone?!

[Cobey]

Could be as simple as a little rain got into your electric door lock switch on the driver's door. Do you recall leaving your window cracked open when driving when it was raining?

I've certainly done it. I'm one that has the window cracked open probably 80% of the time I'm driving.

The door lock switch/button is in the middle of the car, just below the radio though.

[Cobey]

Periodically, the panic alarm (the honking horn alarm that you use to find your car in a big parking lot or what happens when you open the door from the inside after locking it) has been just going off for seemingly no reason. As is the case with these fucking things, this always seems to happen after midnight. It happened about 5-6 times last night...all between 3:00 AM and 5:30 AM.

Rarely, I have seen the "door ajar" light/chime turn on and off as I am driving along. I'm hypothesizing that these two are related and it may just need a jamb switch/sensor. I have it in the shop right now to see what they can do (along with a brake job), but unless I get lucky as fuck and the thing goes off while it's there, I don't anticipate that I'll have much luck.

Anyone have any other possible ideas? In the meantime, I'll probably be either unhooking the battery or keeping the key in the car overnight to prevent my neighbors from burning my place to the ground.

Sounds like a pinsir switch. Ford seems to have gotten confused and decided to create some crap during their transition to EVs... Your Festiva is a solid car, but... Pucker up... She's gonna start nickle and diming you. Shoulda bought a kia my man.

It's already nickel and diming me...I've had to replace both tie rod ends before 50k miles. Rear brakes twice, so I have a feeling that the calipers are next, I have to replace at least 1 winter tire before the snow flies, I'm pretty sure I'll be on the hook for the charcoal canister apparatus to clear this EVAP vacuum code that it's throwing...I doubt that's covered by the powertrain warranty. I love the car and want to keep the thing, but I dont know if I can afford to.

[Cobey]

Sounds like a pinsir switch. Ford seems to have gotten confused and decided to create some crap during their transition to EVs... Your Festiva is a solid car, but... Pucker up... She's gonna start nickle and diming you. Shoulda bought a kia my man.

It's already nickel and diming me...I've had to replace both tie rod ends before 50k miles. Rear brakes twice, so I have a feeling that the calipers are next, I have to replace at least 1 winter tire before the snow flies, I'm pretty sure I'll be on the hook for the charcoal canister apparatus to clear this EVAP vacuum code that it's throwing...I doubt that's covered by the powertrain warranty. I love the car and want to keep the thing, but I dont know if I can afford to.

Just wait until the kractickler evaporator starts to act up.

This is serious business, asshole

[Mizuno Man]

I was going to give you advice but as soon as I read you couldn't do a set of rear disc brakes yourself I lost all interest. Best to just fake an electrical car fire and collect the insurance money. I recommend a 1996 Plymouth Voyager as a replacement.

[Mizuno Man]

It's definitely on the table, unfortunately.

What are you looking at to purchase?

Nothing exciting. Even if I had the budget, the supply locally is kinda nonexistent. So if I went that route, it would be something with a usable back seat for two car seats.

I'm thinking Accord or similarly sized sedan. I'm fighting the crossover, but some of those could be had for cheaper.

You should check out a 2009-2012 Acura TL SH-AWD It has plenty of room, good tech and around 300 HP. Can be had for around 5-8k if you shop around. Built proof 3.5 l v-6

[Cobey]

I was going to give you advice but as soon as I read you couldn't do a set of rear disc brakes yourself I lost all interest. Best to just fake an electrical car fire and collect the insurance money. I recommend a 1996 Plymouth Voyager as a replacement.

There are a lot of things that I could do myself, but choose not to because there are people you can pay to do such things.

I forked over $500 to have a junk removal company clean my garage and haul away a bunch of shit, for example.

[DonaldDouchebag]

You should always do brakes yourself. It's just too easy to pay someone to do it.

Can you form a closed loop one by one on the switches? You know, so the computer thinks the door is always closed? Use that to figure out which switch is bad?

[Cobey]

You should always do brakes yourself. It's just too easy to pay someone to do it.

Can you form a closed loop one by one on the switches? You know, so the computer thinks the door is always closed? Use that to figure out which switch is bad?

It's easy on flat ground. My driveway is sloped enough to make using a jack real sketch and that's really my only workable space right now.

The google searches I've done on this kind of seem to suggest doing something similar...basically running a wire across the female end of the connector to make the car think the door is closed, then just be wise about making sure everything is shut before driving it going forward. I haven't quite decided if it's going to be worth going through the hassle if I am going to need to sell the thing after I get through the mortgage process anyway.

[Sarge]

Could be as simple as a little rain got into your electric door lock switch on the driver's door. Do you recall leaving your window cracked open when driving when it was raining?

I've certainly done it. I'm one that has the window cracked open probably 80% of the time I'm driving.

The door lock switch/button is in the middle of the car, just below the radio though.

Rules that out. Do what Donny said then. You might get by just by spraying some weasel piss into the door latch. Can of electrical contact cleaner maybe with the straw in the nozzle.

The evap code will be covered under the Federal emmisions warranty. Doubt if it'll be the charcoal cannister itself.

[Cobey]

The evap code will be covered under the Federal emmisions warranty. Doubt if it'll be the charcoal cannister itself.

This car has one of those new cap-less fuel fillers and there's a specific set of things that you're supposed to do/not do when filling up. Things like not "topping off," leave the pump in for like 60 seconds after you're done, ect. I don't know that I can say that I always followed it to a T, so I have a feeling it could be related to that.

[Cobey]

Could be as simple as a little rain got into your electric door lock switch on the driver's door. Do you recall leaving your window cracked open when driving when it was raining?

I've certainly done it. I'm one that has the window cracked open probably 80% of the time I'm driving.

The door lock switch/button is in the middle of the car, just below the radio though.

Rules that out. Do what Donny said then. You might get by just by spraying some weasel piss into the door latch. Can of electrical contact cleaner maybe with the straw in the nozzle.

The problem is that it's so intermittent that it's going to be tough to replicate. Like maybe it happens a few days in a row, then it doesnt happen again for several weeks. Or it happens every night. I have a can of brake cleaner and maybe MAF cleaner in the garage though, so I suppose it couldn't hurt to try that

[Sarge]

The evap code will be covered under the Federal emmisions warranty. Doubt if it'll be the charcoal cannister itself.

This car has one of those new cap-less fuel fillers and there's a specific set of things that you're supposed to do/not do when filling up. Things like not "topping off," leave the pump in for like 60 seconds after you're done, ect. I don't know that I can say that I always followed it to a T, so I have a feeling it could be related to that.

Click here to learn how to add YouTube Videos to your phpBB forum

[Sarge]

Any progress on this?

[Cobey]

Any progress on this?

It's kind of taken a back seat to some other stuff. I shot some MAF sensor cleaner in all of the latches after you brought that up, but it still appears to be an issue

The door ajar light is now on pretty much all of the time, which should in theory make it easier to track down what's going on.

The alarm hasn't gone off again, but I have been rolling the dice and the keys sit in the car overnight to prevent pissing my neighbors off. Now that things aren't super hectic around here, I'll probably schedule an appointment at Ford to get it looked into (and the EVAP vacuum related CEL)

[Cobey]

So this is going to be something I'm going to be getting done as soon as possible now.

After rolling the dice for a few weeks by keeping the keys in the car to avoid the alarm going off at 3 am again, someone went through my car overnight. They took a backpack that I keep in there that I use to carry shit into work, but doesn't really hold anything of value at all. And maybe my Ray Bans (but those might be in my wife's car, I haven't cared enough to look yet). I never really keep anything of value in there anyway, so I don't think I really care that much, but I don't know that I want to go through the paperwork if the thing gets stolen.

[DonaldDouchebag]

Dude, that sucks.

[Cobey]

Dude, that sucks.

I don't know if I want to throw money at this thing if I'm just gonna be selling it anyway...which has been part of my hesitation on getting this work done, but I don't know if I can live with it the way it is for a few months. Luckily, I don't think there was anything in the backpack other than a few spent vape cartridges. So really I'm out a $20 Target backpack.

I do worry a little about the car itself being stolen though.

[DonaldDouchebag]

I'm hyper alert about my old truck getting stolen these days. If I drive it anywhere its basically sitting there with no doors or top. Really need to wire in a hidden ignition cutoff switch somewheres.

I guess what you could do is just put a battery disconnect switch under the hood on the positive battery cable and turn off the battery every night after you lock the doors.

[Cobey]

I'm hyper alert about my old truck getting stolen these days. If I drive it anywhere its basically sitting there with no doors or top. Really need to wire in a hidden ignition cutoff switch somewheres.

I guess what you could do is just put a battery disconnect switch under the hood on the positive battery cable and turn off the battery every night after you lock the doors.

I have the room in the garage to park it now, but that means playing car tetris in the morning to get it out. That's probably going to be my route until I get the door latch work done, but my local Ford dealer is a week out in scheduling for service right now and if my last visit is any indication, they'll just be doing the diagnosis at that appointment, then it will be however long it takes to get the part. Disconnecting the battery was a thought I had too, but manufacturers like putting weird gimmicks in that need a dealer reset after a battery is disconnected, so I don't know if I'll be doing that one.

[DonaldDouchebag]

I'm hyper alert about my old truck getting stolen these days. If I drive it anywhere its basically sitting there with no doors or top. Really need to wire in a hidden ignition cutoff switch somewheres.

I guess what you could do is just put a battery disconnect switch under the hood on the positive battery cable and turn off the battery every night after you lock the doors.

I have the room in the garage to park it now, but that means playing car tetris in the morning to get it out. That's probably going to be my route until I get the door latch work done, but my local Ford dealer is a week out in scheduling for service right now and if my last visit is any indication, they'll just be doing the diagnosis at that appointment, then it will be however long it takes to get the part. Disconnecting the battery was a thought I had too, but manufacturers like putting weird gimmicks in that need a dealer reset after a battery is disconnected, so I don't know if I'll be doing that one.

Yeah, you'd surely need to enter a code for your radio or some shit.

[Cobey]

I'm hyper alert about my old truck getting stolen these days. If I drive it anywhere its basically sitting there with no doors or top. Really need to wire in a hidden ignition cutoff switch somewheres.

I guess what you could do is just put a battery disconnect switch under the hood on the positive battery cable and turn off the battery every night after you lock the doors.

I have the room in the garage to park it now, but that means playing car tetris in the morning to get it out. That's probably going to be my route until I get the door latch work done, but my local Ford dealer is a week out in scheduling for service right now and if my last visit is any indication, they'll just be doing the diagnosis at that appointment, then it will be however long it takes to get the part. Disconnecting the battery was a thought I had too, but manufacturers like putting weird gimmicks in that need a dealer reset after a battery is disconnected, so I don't know if I'll be doing that one.

Yeah, you'd surely need to enter a code for your radio or some shit.

I got a battery for the wife's car after that big cold snap we had in January-ish from Batteries Plus. The "expert" guy at Batteries Plus was telling me that the new Fords they are putting out now have something that disables a brake pedal sensor after a battery disconnect. So a trip to a dealer is necessary to even get the car started.