Cougar

I agree, replacing the switch should fix you up.

I can understand your frustration about that. You should be able to have some effect if you do this right. If I was doing this I would write a letter to him instead of calling him. To me, a letter has more impact and in writing you can state things better sometimes than with just a quick phone call. In the letter just state the facts of what happened and who you spoke with in the service area and when. I assume it wasn't the owner you dealt with, but he should get with his employee and speak with him about your dissatisfaction with the service. The service employee is going to listen to his boss if he is wise. The letter may just go in the trash and a phone call can just end when it is hung up. If you do this in a correct manner it should get some results. You may even get an apology letter back. If the owner is truely customer oriented you will hear back from him, since you are a good customer that no good business would want to lose. You could include your phone number in case he would like to talk to you personally.

Welcome to the forum Burt and since these vehicles are so new you probably won't need much help from us here. I hope you get a lot of good driving from these cars. I have an '01 LL Bean myself. It does sound like there is a small coolant leak near the water pump, in front of the engine. Most likely due to a loose hose clamp, a minor issue but it does need to be found and fixed. These kind of leaks usually only leak slightly and only under pressure, when the engine is hot. Tell the service shop you suspect you have a leak and to look for it near the water pump. I think they can use a special light to look for signs of a leak also.

Those are tractor tires!

The ground connection that ties through the switch may be bad or the switch connection itself.

Sorry to see that but like you say, it could have been a lot worse.

I learned about the infamous fuse #5 some time ago while trying to help someone find this same problem and sending a lot of posts back and forth, testing various things. We finally discovered the trouble after a lot of hair pulling. It is an easily overlooked item but it is now first on my list of things to check when looking for this trouble. The fuse supplies power to a lot of areas so you may be wise in investing in a service manual to help you in locating the trouble. One of the likely areas is the seatbelt warning. You could try disconnecting the ECU to see if that helps but I kind of doubt the trouble is there, but I may be wrong. Edit: Well it looks like I am a little late here. I see now that you found the problem. Good deal.

Sorry to hear that was the problem.

Since you state that the gauge shows a reading even with the engine of then the gauge itself is stuck and it needs to be replaced.

If you haven't checked for voltage on the plus and minus sides of the coil yet, with the key turned to RUN, then you need to do that. There must be voltage present on those connections for the ignition to work. If there isn't any voltage check fuse #5. If voltage is between 10 and 12 volts that is good. The next step would be to check the CAS circuit and ignitor.

The problem sounds like a blown headgasket.

The fan relay is a very likely suspect if that is the only problem. Since there seem to be other things having trouble at the same time then it may be the ignition switch. The switch section is seperate from the lock so you shouldn't need to have a different key if that is the problem. There may also be a wire connection problem causing this to happen. I would check the ignition switch area for signs of heat damage to the wiring or switch.

That problem won't happen by pulling the fuse. Check the fuel filter. If that is good then you may have a weak fuel pump.

Thanks for the notice Gloyale. I'll bet you're correct about where the shorted area is.

The fuse may feed power to the ECU also or possibly the MAF. The problem is most likely under the hood but it could be elsewhere. I do not have my data reference to look at right now. Is the circuit having trouble on fuse #12?

The lights are controlled by grounding the connection to the lights through the light switch. The switch contacts may be shorted and causing the trouble. Try removing the wire connection to the light switch. If the lights go out then the switch appears to be the trouble. If the lights stay on then there is a short to ground somewhere on the return wire from the lights.

Lets start with the year and model of the vehicle we are talking about.

I concur with your prognosis Dr. Grossgary.

Another place that is fairly common to have trouble is the fusible links. These look like small pieces of wire. You will find them in a small plastic box mounted on the coolant resevoir. Open the cover to access them and make sure they are making good connection. Look for signs of burning. The black colored one carries the most current.

Thanks for the update Shortlid. Glad it was a simple fix, though perhaps not real convenient for you.

I can't believe the engine would be doing this unless something is happening with the fuel delivery. Hopefully, this problem is just due to a small leak in the transmission area and the fluid is low because something didn't get tightened down correctly.

I agree about the humidity. The problem may be due to a faulty plug, plug wire, or plug connection. Make sure the connections to be plugs are snugged down around the plug all the way. If that is good and the plugs are fairly old then you could try replacing them with OEM NKG's. If that doesn't help then replacing the plug wires with factory replacements may help. One thing comes to mind though, if the engine is misfiring then you should be getting a code error. The problem may be elsewhere. I have heard of faulty engine grounding causing a problem. If spraying down the ignition system with some water mist doesn't make it change then try doing it at the ground points of the engine to see if that does anything. Check the connection to the MAF sensor also.

You are correct. A truely good connection between two points should be zero ohms. This applies to a grounding system and to the power side of the circuit. You just need to make sure power is disconnected from the circuit whenever measuring the resistance of a circuit. The meter applies its own power to the circuit when measuring resistance and if other current is flowing also it can change the true reading and possibly damage the meter. In reality, you may possibly see a couple of ohms of resistance between the car and the trailer grounds due to wire losses. The method I gave to measure the circuit is for a voltage drop that will occur due to resistance between the points measured, if there is a connection problem. Current needs to be flowing through the loads when using this method so the voltage losses will appear across the bad connections due to the current flowing through the extra resistance.

To see if there is a grounding problem you can measure the difference between the two grounds using a voltmeter. You may need to make a long jumper wire to do the measurement. Just measure the voltage between two known good ground points on the car and the trailer with the lights on. A good connection will show no voltage difference.

It may be in the power distribution panel under the hood. The clicking you heard may have really been the circuit breaker cutting in and out. The short may now have burned open. Something would not be working if that is the case.