'01 Continental Multiple Electrical Problems at once

M

markhart

Registered
I have an '01 Continental with 57,000 miles on it. I have owned the car for about two months. It recently has had a set of electrical problems all at the same time.

1) The keyless entry door keypad quit working. It only illuminates when the center buttons are pushed. It will not accept the code to open doors.

2) The interior lights cycle on and off continually when the car is parked.

3) The lock solenoids keep trying to lock the doors, usually about once per second or so.

4) The drivers door mirror tilts to the downward position.

All of these problems are intermittant. I am pulling the door lock fuse to stop the lock coils from continuously energizing. I pulled the keyless entry pad fuse and that stopped the interior light from coming on.

Any ideas on what to check? I was thinking the keyless entry pad was the culprit but the locks kept trying to lock with the keyless entry pad fuse removed.

Would the Lincoln Mercury dealer be able to pull error codes to see the problem? ( I had a 99 Crown Vic that I took back under warranty many many times for a battery drain problem that they could not find)
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
 
RE: '01 Continental Multiple Electrical Problems at once

Check alternator voltage. I've seen really strange things happen to a Lincoln when the alternator is bad and the battery is getting weak in the knees. YOu should have greater than 13 volts on the battery when the motor is running.

Does it think the car is in reverse? (the mirrors going down on reverse is a menu option.)
 
RE: '01 Continental Multiple Electrical Problems at once

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Does it think the car is in reverse? (the mirrors going down on reverse is a menu option.)
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Just what I was thinking...maybe a short in the tranny sender wiring. Or a bad MLPS.
 
RE: '01 Continental Multiple Electrical Problems at once

I checked the voltage at the battery running and it measured 13.23 volts. The battery was new in April. The backup lights come on when I shift the transmission into reverse, and they go out when I shift it out of reverse.
 
RE: '01 Continental Multiple Electrical Problems at once

There could still be a problem with the lever position sensor. A different switch turns on and off the rear lights (higher current.) The position sensor outputs low volatge (5 volts -- digital logic level.)

Turn off the option and see if it still does the mirror thing.
 
RE: '01 Continental Multiple Electrical Problems at once

I have had the mirror tilt-down option off when this was going on. Would the dealer see a faulty position sensor if they did a diagnostic check?
 
RE: '01 Continental Multiple Electrical Problems at once

[div class="dcquote"][strong]Quote[/strong]
I have had the mirror tilt-down option off when this was going on. Would the dealer see a faulty position sensor if they did a diagnostic check?
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Not likely because it doesn't set off a CE code.
 
RE: '01 Continental Multiple Electrical Problems at once

Put the lever on "N" then start it. See if it does the mirror thing as it does when in "P". If so, then we are barking up the wrong tree.
 
RE: '01 Continental Multiple Electrical Problems at once

Have the OBDII network scanned.

Yes, there will be codes.

The Memory Seat Module WILL set error codes if it sees false mirror positions or motor errors. It will set codes if it cannot recieve or is incorrectly recieving Gear Data.

The Driver's Door Module will generate lock and keyless entry codes, to the extent that it will even identify which, if any, keypad buttons are shorted or open.

The PCM will indicate if it can forward Gear Data to all relevent modules, and if it cannot, which ones it is unable to communicate with.

The Lighting Control Module will identify any erroneous information it is recieving through the network, or if there are any malfunctions directly related to its own circuits or functions.

You're dealing with a set of problems involving some pretty sophisticated inter-module communication. Don't guess!
 
RE: '01 Continental Multiple Electrical Problems at once

My crystal ball isn't strong enough to see the 700 miles to and into your car, so I'm going to make a few assumptions here. They may be not be 100% accurate, but hear me out. I hope they'll be helpful.

Continentals and Town Cars have a chronic problem with water entry (= corrosion) into the keypad buttons. The fact that not all of yours illuminate or respond makes me sure that your keypad is junk.

If the 7/8 and 9/0 contacts are shorted simultaneously, the DDM will believe it's recieving a Lock command. It's not always smart enough to know the signals it's getting are wrong. It will keep trying and trying and trying to obey.
If any button's contacts appear closed to it, the DDM may forward that information to the LCM and request interior lights on as part of the Illuminated Entry/Exit programming.

Simply pulling the keypad/lock fuse will not stop the DDM from recieving false information from the pad if there are internal shorts.

It may not be the root or only cause of your problems, but you'll have to begin by replacing your keypad.

On to your mirrors.

The string of coincidences required for the MLPS to send incorrect position data to the PCM, or the PCM to misinterpret correct data, transmit it incorrectly to the DSMM, have this module command Reverse Mirror position, and have NO other module affected are astronomically high.
There's a possibility that Gear Data is correct throughout the system, but the DSMM is making an independently stupid decision, I suppose. Either way, there should be related Bxxxx (for Body) series codes in the OBDII system.

Based on experience, I'm much more inclined to believe they're not actually going into Reverse Mirror position; they're going into a wonky memory position other than the one you're expecting.

Why don't you try setting all features of BOTH Driver's Memory Preferences to your positions and see what happens?
 
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