Low Fuel, Low Washer Fluid, Check Oil all show themselves intermittantly on my 88GT. None of these conditions are true faults. Anyone have any ideas on their cause?

 

Bad sending units or wiring?

 

yeah i would have to say there is a loose wire or one grounding out inside the guage pod. if it was just one i would say bad sending unit. but all of them i think would be caused by something else. also check all your fuses and make sure they are all tight and are in good shape. and look for loose wiring hanging down in the foot well.

 

I'm not 100% sure this is the case, but I suspect the ignition switch.

When I first bought my 91 about 2 months ago, I noticed that intermittently I would get low coolant, airbag warning indicators. Sometimes they would blink other times they would stay on until I turned it off and started it again.

About 2 weeks ago, I was riding down the road and my AC blower motor quit blowing. I drove it home, had the key in the on position looking around under the hood. I went to turn the key off, saw sparks around the key. About that time, a puff of smoke from under the dash, and a bigger puff of smoke under the hood (fusible link). Now the car wouldn't start.

I talked to my mechanic, and he told me there was a recall for that. I called the Ford dealer, they towed it in, replaced my ignition switch, didn't cost a penny, and all is good now. I've had it back for 5 days now, and I haven't had a single false warning.

I would call the Ford dealer, have your VIN ready, and see if recall 95S28 NOV 95 Recall - Ignition Switch Replacement
has been done on your car. If it hasn't, you should be able to get the new ignition switch for free even without a catastrophic failure.

Apparantly I was lucky and my failure only blew a fusible link. There have been cases where it started an electrical fire.

If it fixes your problem then great!, if it doesn't, at least you don't have to worry about it going up in flames.

I checked Alldata, and this recall affects the 88 as well.

Good luck!

 

The ignition swtich is a good start as they are the cause of MANY electrical gremlins but if that does not fix it check the printed circuit board on the back of the cluster for any damage as well as the voltage regulator on the cluster....they have been known to fritz out and cause false readings.

 

Just thought I would let you know that evidently I spoke too soon. My low coolant light came of for a couple of minutes this weekend. I guess it wasn't the ignition switch after all.

If you find the gremlin, please post it here. This is something that has been bugging me too.

Thanks,

 

Yeah I got the low coolant light on intermittently too when I first got my 91. Even after I just pressure checked the rad. and changed my waterpump and "burped" the system. Never was a low coolant issue. Was a sensor issue. the sensor was all gummed up in the reserve tank and wasnt reading properly. Just cleaned it and used some light grit sand paper for the crap on the sensors and all was good again!

 

Thanks BigBoy. I'll take a look at that.

Your avatar makes my nose hurt. :-)

 

LOL yeah his avatar is funny. yeah i forgot about the ignition recall.

 

it is funny... looks like the guy is a mental patient

 

Well in a way, he is!