Hi all,

96 Escort 1.3.  Started it the other day and the rear window heater
switch light came on.  Since then it has never gone off again, even
without the keys in (which apparently should be 'impossible' according
to the ford garage up the road).  Pulled the heater fuse, bashed the
switch every which way, nothing, still on.  The wirder thing is that
the switch seems to still operate the heater, it's just the damn light
won't go off!  I know the inconvenience is minor as it will last at
least 24 hrs before draining the battery enough so that I can't start
it..but even after 8 hours it takes a few turns to get going instead of
firing straight away as it usually does.  What the hell could this be??
 I was thinking water in the fuse box and the garage actually blew an
air hose through it to see if there was any but nothing came out,
though there had been a little bit of water on the edge of the box
cover.  They are now saying they'll need to take the fusebox out
completly and have a look at it to see what's wrong and if it is the
fusebox it's a couple of hundred quid for the part.

So I now look to the combined millennia of experience in this group to
suggest what else there might be going on that neither I nor ford have
thought of.

Chandy

In article ,
   Chandy  wrote:

> 96 Escort 1.3.  Started it the other day and the rear window heater
> switch light came on.  Since then it has never gone off again, even
> without the keys in (which apparently should be 'impossible' according
> to the ford garage up the road).  Pulled the heater fuse, bashed the
> switch every which way, nothing, still on.  The wirder thing is that
> the switch seems to still operate the heater, it's just the damn light
> won't go off!


Is the window on a timer, so the switch not a plain on off? If so, the
actual timer unit - to which the light is a tally to tell you it's in
operation - will be sited elsewhere, probably on the fusebox, and will be
similar to a relay. And that timer is very likely on a different circuit
to the actual high current window feed, so *could* operate the warning
light without the window. In any case my first approach would be to try
another timer.

-- 
*I am a nobody, and nobody is perfect; therefore I am perfect*

    Dave Plowman        dave@davenoise.co.uk           London SW
                  To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Chandy"  wrote in message
news:1127556469.331734.17930@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

> Hi all,
>
> 96 Escort 1.3.  Started it the other day and the rear window heater
> switch light came on.  Since then it has never gone off again, even
> without the keys in (which apparently should be 'impossible' according
> to the ford garage up the road).  Pulled the heater fuse, bashed the
> switch every which way, nothing, still on.  The wirder thing is that
> the switch seems to still operate the heater, it's just the damn light
> won't go off!  I know the inconvenience is minor as it will last at
> least 24 hrs before draining the battery enough so that I can't start
> it..but even after 8 hours it takes a few turns to get going instead of
> firing straight away as it usually does.  What the hell could this be??
>  I was thinking water in the fuse box and the garage actually blew an
> air hose through it to see if there was any but nothing came out,
> though there had been a little bit of water on the edge of the box
> cover.  They are now saying they'll need to take the fusebox out
> completly and have a look at it to see what's wrong and if it is the
> fusebox it's a couple of hundred quid for the part.
>
> So I now look to the combined millennia of experience in this group to
> suggest what else there might be going on that neither I nor ford have
> thought of.
>
> Chandy


they do suffer from fuse box problems, id check the wires that go through
the tailgate haven't chaffed through and is causing it to get back fed.