1996 Cougar XR7 electrical problem

Hi, I just bought a 1996 Cougar XR7 with 99k miles and the awsome 4.6L. Everything is nice except:

1.the electric door unlock does not work on either door. When it is pushed the clock goes dim. The locking works on both doors though.

2.The traction control light does not turn on or off.

3.The power antena never went up but makes a noise like it wants to go up but does not, when i turn the radio on. Sometimes it will not make the noise or go up if i have the heat on before i turn the radio on.

And How would i go about determining wether my car is ready for keyless entry, it has the little red light just to the left of the steering wheel. And at night i seen all the lights flash when i locked the doors once.

Sorry for such a long post but the more information i can give may narrow the problem down. I have checked all the fuses under the hood and am going to check the ones under the dash right now.

I Thank all you TB/Cougar enthusiasts in advance :grinyes:

1. If the clock lamp is dimming then it means current is being drawn in the circuit so you may have a couple of bad lock actuator motors. You can try cleaning the switches with electrical contact cleaning spray. If that doesn't work, disconnect switches in both doors and apply 12V across the two wires going to the actuator motors. In a '97 Bird they are the PK/O and PK/BK wires. Connecting the 12V in one direction will lock the door and applying 12V in the other direction will unlock the door. If nothing happens when you apply 12V then the actuators are bad. Be safe by using a 20A fuse and at least 14ga wire to connect the 12V to the actuators.
2. Don't have schematic for this.
3. It sounds like a bad motor here also. Apply 12V across the two wires going to the antenna motor. Connected in one direction should raise the antenna and in the other direction the antenna should lower.
4. The red light is for your alarm system- not keyless entry.

Thank you very much 97 bird i might do that tomorrow morning. How ever i would like to get keyless entry so i don't break my key off in the car door lol. Is there something you could look at under the dash or something that is involved with the keyless entry. I heard you could just buy a keypad off ebay if your car originally came with keyless entry. Thanks again

On a 97 Bird the door lock switches aren't wired directly to the lock actuator motors if you have remote entry.The switches and actuators are all wired to the remote/keyless entry module that is located on the drivers side rear quarter panel. You have to remove the trim panel on that side of the trunk to get to the module. I'm not 100% certain but I would say yours is wired the same way if it has the remote entry. When you take the trunk panel out you should see three boxes. The one to the rear is the inertia fuel shut off switch. It has a red button on it to reset the fuel pump if you get into an accident. The one next to that is the anti-theft controller module and the one next to that would be the remote/keyless entry module.

Hi, This is the follow up on the electric dilema. The 10A fuse for the interior lights blows imediately even blew a 15A in like 3 seconds.

I had the door panel off and was using a test light on the harness for the door looks. I had the test light grounded on the ground wire for the alarm system (which all the wires except like 4 are cut) and i touched one and the doors locked. So i touched all the other ones and nothing happened. Then i touched the one that locked the doors again it worked again but then the third time it did not. The door locks still work when i put the panel back on( using the button). Also while i had the panel off i took the harness off the power mirrors because they do not work. (i could not get anything with the mirrors to work).

Anyways, ive been having trouble with overdrive and 3rd gear, my car wants to shift into overdrive then into neutral then into 3rd then back to OD. It doesnt do it every single time but it does it very very often. I was sick of putting it in neutral manually or taking foot off gas until i felt the trans go back into gear. This all happened around 35-40 mph sometimes more or less.

Today i had the car on the hoist and was looking at the module on the side of trans. You can just pull the harness right out without unclipping it or anything. So i cleaned it with electrical spray and put di elec grease on it and put some duck tape to hold it better. Then i followed the harnedd back and there was another harness about (1 inch squared) that was all beat up. One of the sides was just broked off so you could pull this one apart with no effort or uncliping and the little rubber seal was broke. The female end looked burnt in a few spots and the little male plastic pieces were broke inside the harness(the ones that align the harness). So i cleaned it off best i could with electrical cleaning spray and used di electic grease and taped it best i could. They are both in very hard to reach spots, And i didnt want to pull the other harness out of the module.

So im wondering why the check engine light is on now and the OD light blinks. I was kinda mad so i just drove straight home and didnt go fast enough to see if it went into overdrive or see if the problem persisted. I am going to drive it in a few and see how it does. How hard would it be to take a harness from another car and wire it into mine. Any thoughts will be appreciated. Thanks

I think you should run a CarFax on your car! It sounds like it was in water with all the problems you are having with the electrical system. The O/D light flashes when there is a short in the Electronic Pressure Control (EPC) solenoid circuit in the transmission. Take your car to AutoZone and ask to have the trouble codes read. That should give you an idea of why the CEL is on.

Well when i bought the car i got the dealer title, the small one. It was bought from The Krug dealership near detroit, it was one owner who isn't alive anymore. Plus the guy gave me the cleared balance paper when ti was paid off and a copy of original bill of sale. The title was still in the desist guy's name. It had 12k when the car was purchased originally and ended up with one of his famlily members or something then she sold it to the used car dealer/trans shop i got it from with a wore out trans and severly ticking engine. The bottom of the oil pan is dented and the radiator suppert is dented from when the swapped the motor in it, my luck the harness' are cracked too. Unless someone changed VINS's lol yea right, it's not that clean.

The check engine light and O/D off light (flashing) came on after i cleaned the harness' going to and from the transmission. It doesn't do the same thing when it shifted into o/d then neutral then to 3rd anymore. However when i first start it every time it will not want to shift out of first. When i finally get it out of first its fine, sometimes it shifts hard though.

Anyways, I was at Parts Galore(serve yourself junk yard) and i found a number of cougars and tb's with 4r70w's. About everyone there that still had that harness going from the trans to under the radio, were drenched in oil or trans fluid. So i ended up finding a 97 bird with a 3.8 that had a good looking harness on it. Plus the exhaust was cut off so i got it out pretty easy. The harness looks very much the same but i believe only has two spouts for o2 sensors. I did not cut it at all, so i got the harness to:

the trans module, 2 oxygen sensors, 2 black female harness' with 2 pins, the square harness with about 15 pins(which was broke on mine), a rectangle on with 8 pins, the female that goes to passenger side of trans (maybe reverse lights), and the two big rectangular ones that go under radio (one white one yellow) behind the traction control button and low fuel etc.

I was skeptical because it was a V6 however i got the whole harness, didn't miss or cut anything i needed for $7.26 so ill take that loss if i have too.

Could i just swap this harness in for mine? I also picked up another door lock switch, maybe that will work too:screwy: (probably not)

Also i am thinking about doing the front strut rod bushings and front struts. Should i use original springs or just buy the easy struts. Also polyurethane bushings or just murrays cheapy bushings