Electrical woes and testing blue key fob

[RadioSurfer]

Hello,

Day 6 of owning a Mk 7 Transit and I’m working through various electrical issues.

The list so far:

Resolved:

- Air con not working but resolved due to a dirty contacts on the push on/off air con switch.
- Non original internal load area light removed as broken unit. Power supply tested and ok, just need to order some new light fittings.
- Tape removed from where 3rd brake light used to be, fished out wiring from the bottom of the rear door, cut off corroded connector and ordered new OEM brake light. Power is fine when brake pedal pressed.
- One of the number plate lights not working as the unit was cracked and let water in, contacts dirty. Ordered new fitting and cleaned up contacts ready for the new fitting.
- Rear light cluster connections cleaned and put back together, all lights ok.

Still working on:

- Rear parking sensors not working. Did all the usual tests of listening for a click/slight vibration but nothing. Followed the wiring until it disappears into a hole just beneath the o/s rear number. No idea where it goes from there, so more reading and investigation needed. I’m hoping the wiring is accessible to clean the connections and chase the power to identify any faults.
- Remote unlocking not working. So a process of elimination has begun to find the fault. So far, I’ve checked the battery and its 3.1v so thats, fine. I noticed someone had tried to change the battery and not soldered in the negative wire, so I did that. Still no joy. I tested the 3 tiny push switches and they are fine. I then tested to see if it was actually transmitting using a multimeter and diode and its not. Here’s a picture of the readings for a remote from my other car v the blue Ford fob. A simple test, but at least I know I’ve got a dud fob now so hopefully, don’t need to start removing the headlining to find the receiver unit, at least not yet. What’s the best plan to get a working fob?

Cheers, Richard

[RadioSurfer]

Hello,

Just a quick update on progress in the snow and cold, not ideal for working outside on electrics.

- rear brake light arrived and now wired in and fitted, I had to make up a new socket to go over the small pins on the light fitting from small diameter brass tube and heat shrink as the old plug/socket had corroded.

- both number plate lights changed as the replacement came in a pair.

- remote locking now working, hurray. I ended up buying a genuine uncut Ford key for £70 ( although I understand you can’t claim its genuine Ford unless they supply, cut and code the key - but it is) rather than a cheap imitation as I didn’t know what quality I would get. Cutting and coding was done by a local auto-locksmith. I looked at buying a unit to self code the keys, but that would have cost about £100 and is only worth it if I want more than 1 key. I also looked at downloading the freeware to code the key to the van myself but don’t have a laptop to run it on and would still need someone to cut the key, so went down the easy route. Still a lot cheaper and easier than the main dealer option.

That just leaves me with the reversing sensors to sort and then all the electrics will be done! I can now see that the cable from the sensors come up through a hole under the o/s corner bumper and comes up next to the removed rear light cluster. I can feel a connection block down just above the bumper but can’t pull the cable down under the van to clean the connections even though there is plenty of slack in the cable. The connection block just seems too big to go through the hole or is trapped, I can’t quite see. Has anyone had any joy at getting at this connector, or is it a corner bumper off job?

Cheers, Richard

[RadioSurfer]

Hello,

Partial success on the reversing sensors. I tried again to get at the multi-pin socket in the rear pillar below the offside light cluster for an hour yesterday. The cables are just too tight to pull through the rubber grommet underneath. I managed to pull down about 1/2” of cable and pull up by a similar amount, I daren’t pull any harder. The result is that I must have put tension on the connector and shifted the cables slightly resulting in electrical contact ( probably temporary) and the reversing sensors are now working.

Having proven it’s the plug contacts or possibly freeing up a “short” on the metalwork, I do need to give the contacts a good clean. I don’t want an intermittent sensor when reversing as you can guess what will happen! Someone must have an idea how to get at this plug, so any bright ideas please? Or do I just cut the cables above and below and make up a new section, not ideal as I would then have more connectors and potential weaknesses.

Cheers, Richard.

[Altransit]

We had similar on my son's Mondeo, bought a new sensor to replace the "faulty" one, but there turned out to be an internal break in the wiring to the "offside outer" sensor.

I soldered in a new (longer) section of wire and it's worked ever since.

[RadioSurfer]

Hello,

At last, I managed to extract the multi-pin connector. The cables inside are held within what can best be described as pipe lagging to protect the cables from rubbing against any sharp edges. This stops the cables being pulled through the hole in the o/s rear corner. I’m not sure if this is standard but the other side of the van has a blanking grommet with the same pipe lagging in place, presumably for wiring in countries where they drive on the wrong side of the road?

Anyway, the pins within the block have been cleaned and a little electrical contact cleaning fluid sprayed onto them. Let’s see if that resolves the issue or if there is another fault elsewhere, just a process of elimination. If this does not resolve the issue, I’ll check the switch, if I can find it and it is accessible, on the gearbox.

Cheers, Richard

[RadioSurfer]

Hello,

The reversing sensors are now working intermittently, so some progress! I can go out and they work perfectly, half an hour later nothing at all, no long beep on selecting reverse to indicate a fault. So I'm beginning to suspect the reverse switch may be faulty. I've read somewhere on the forum that the reversing sensor switch is "in gear stick housing on dash". How do I access this switch to test it, can it be accessed easily to test/replace or does half the dash have to come out? If I do need a new switch does anyone know the part number? All my searches so far come back with the reverse lighting switch and not the reverse parking sensor switch. The van is a 2.2 mk7 2012 6 speed.

Any advice gratefully received.

Cheers, Richard

[RadioSurfer]

Hello,

I think all the electrical issues are now sorted. For the last 3 days the parking sensors have worked whenever needed, so it was just a bad connection in the multi-pin socket beneath the o/s rear light cluster and I didn’t need to get at the switch on the gear stick turret.


Cheers, Richard

[RadioSurfer]

Hi,

I spoke too soon. This morning the brake pad worn indicator came on. The pads are fine as they were checked last week at its service, so I assume a faulty sensor or damaged wire to the sensor. Maybe a wire got knocked last week during the service? I haven’t got time this week to check but I'm hoping it is simple to find and fix. Is there an easy way to diagnose which sensor might be playing up? I don’t have access to any diagnostic tools. Does the sensor record an open or closed circuit to trigger the information indicator on the dash?

I’m beginning to wonder if I should have gone for the Vivaro instead! Let’s hope nothing else in the pipeline. I’d quite like to use the van not spend all my time investigating issues.

Cheers, Richard

[RadioSurfer]

Hi,

I’ve found the answer to my question above. The pad sensor circuit is a simple closed circuit so I must have a break somewhere in the circuit. Now that can’t be hard to find, lol.

It is a late van so, from what I’ve read on the Forum, might mean the van has only 1 sensor at the front and rear which I’m hoping will simplify the fault checking. We shall see.

Cheers, Richard

[MinorMatt]

Im sure I have heard of the wiring on the pads themselves failing, so the first thing I would do is disconnect the pad wire, then short the terminals out...

[RadioSurfer]

Hi,

Thanks for the comment, i’ll check the terminals as you suggest. I’ve ordered some waterproof in line repair connectors just in case it is a broken wire. If I don’t need them for this I’m sure I’ll need them for something else. Busy week this week, so won’t be until next week I can take a look and, hopefully, fix. I’ll post a reply with the outcome.

Cheers, Richard

[RadioSurfer]

Hello,

I finally got round to looking at the brake pad sensor warning light coming. I was in luck, the first plug connection that I checked and cleaned at the front seems to have cured the problem. I also cleaned the rear plug as well just to be sure.

Cheers, Richard.