Phantom Car

Tiny
INCLYTUSVIRTUTE
  • MEMBER
  • 2000 FORD TAURUS
I drive a 2000 Ford Taurus with about 80,000 miles on it and there hasn't been any significant problems with it until tonight while I was driving home from work. I got to the street that I live on and the windows started rolling themselves down, then the "low coolant" light came on and I thought they were somehow related and that cars did that. I figured I'm almost home, I'll check it out. As I kept driving the "low coolant" light turned off and the emergency brake light came on, then the seatbelt light, low gas light, and airbag light and then all turned off. Then the locks started locking and re-locking themselves while the inside lights were turning on and off. By the time I got home and put the car in park and turned it off the alert sound my car makes to remind me if my lights are on or my keys are still in the ignition would not stop unless we disconnected the battery. In addition to this, my windows can no longer go up or down. This all happened in about a 2 minute time span. What could the problem be? Would it be expensive to fix?
Sunday, November 21st, 2010 AT 4:42 AM

7 Replies

Tiny
JACOBANDNICKOLAS
  • MECHANIC
  • 109,747 POSTS
I think you need a priest. (Lol) Something has shorted out or you lost a ground and the electric is finding its way through everything else. Check under the hood near the power distribution box for wires that look disconnected or damaged. If everything looks okay, then you need to have the body control module tested.

Let me know what you find.

Joe
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Sunday, November 21st, 2010 AT 4:51 AM
Tiny
INCLYTUSVIRTUTE
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I was wondering if someone was playing a joke on me, but I was alone in the car ha. Yikes, that sounds expensive. I checked all the wires that I could see and there wasn't any damage or disconnection that I could tell, then again there were about a million wires everywhere. I think the plan is to take it in someplace tomorrow to do some tests to see if someone can figure out what's wrong. Thanks for your help, Emma.
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Monday, November 22nd, 2010 AT 5:47 AM
Tiny
JACOBANDNICKOLAS
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Emma:
Let me know what they find before okaying any work. At least I can tell you if it sounds correct. Many times, they take the "lets try this" route which ends up costing you money and nothing gets fixed.

If you want, let me know.

Joe
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Monday, November 22nd, 2010 AT 4:39 PM
Tiny
INCLYTUSVIRTUTE
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They told us they think it's the engine control module, I think that's what they said. It was engine control something, does that sound about right?
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Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010 AT 5:03 AM
Tiny
JACOBANDNICKOLAS
  • MECHANIC
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Could they have said the body control module?
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Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010 AT 5:55 AM
Tiny
INCLYTUSVIRTUTE
  • MEMBER
  • 4 POSTS
I got more information about it and they said it was the global gem module, I think is what the phrase was. Some switch needs to be replaced and its attached to the whole electronic junk so the whole thing pretty much needs to be replaced.
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Wednesday, November 24th, 2010 AT 5:03 AM
Tiny
JACOBANDNICKOLAS
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The GEM is behind the fuse panel under the dash. It could be the problem.
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Wednesday, November 24th, 2010 AT 3:14 PM

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