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1998 Mercury Sable Short causing drain on battery

Tiny
EDFEETS
  • MEMBER
  • 1998 MERCURY SABLE
  • 6 CYL
  • FWD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 100,450 MILES
I have a short in the electrical system causing a 300ma drain on the battery when car is not running. This causes the battery to run down after a couple days to the point the car will not turn over. I have isolated the short to a 5A fuse#23 that is marked WIPE-VAP on fuse cover or GEM. When I pull the fuse out the drain basically goes away and the car will start after many days idle. The car will run fine without the fuse, but the power windows, power door locks, windshield wipers and the remote door locks will not operate. What does the fuse control and where do I look for the problem. Thank you, Eric.
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Sunday, June 6th, 2010 AT 9:14 PM

1 Reply

Tiny
CARADIODOC
  • MECHANIC
  • 33,858 POSTS
Hi Eric. Welcome to the forum. "GEM" is Generic Electronic Module. That's Ford's name for their Body Computer which runs all the things you mentioned. Isn't it funny that all those systems worked fine for decades but now they need an expensive, unrelaible computer to do the same thing? Sounds like something inside the module is not turning off, but don't overlook a glovebox light that is staying on.

Caradiodoc
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Monday, June 7th, 2010 AT 4:21 AM

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