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So this is a weird one. At 6 o'clock this morning I heard a horn chirping off in the distance... "beep...beep beep....beep...". Not like someone's car alarm, but like someone was trying to find their car and kept hitting the remote. It goes on for about 20 minutes and I head downstairs, check outside...nothing. Then the garage and, yep, you guessed it -- it was the Mustang.
As I got up closer I saw it wasn't just the horn either, the door locks were trying to lock themselves too. I hit the unlock button from the remote and it immediately relocked itself and kept chirping, almost like somebody was hitting the remote button on auto-fire. It was still before 7 on a Saturday, so I did what anyone else would do in the situation -- I disconnected the battery and went back to bed
Later in the morning I reconnected the battery and it was fine for a couple hours, then I was talking with a neighbor in the garage and all of a sudden it starts going all poltergeist again. I try pulling the battery out of the remote just in case the remote was going haywire -- nope. I open the door to pop the hood again and now the car's double chirping -- that tells me its not something weird like the hood close switch or trunk. I disconnected the battery again, and that's where it's been sitting all day.
I google'd keyless entry system and it's integrated into the SJB -- yeah of course it is.
This is what I don't get -- the car's garaged. Been garaged for the last 4 years. I don't drive it in the rain. I took it in for water leaks back in 2008 and the dealer sealed the area where water was coming in. The SJB has given me zero problems for the last 7 years. The area is bone dry and the fuses all look clean, except for the #6 fuse (accessory delay) which looks like a thin layer of old dried white lithium grease in the terminals.
The car's not a daily driver anymore, but I drive it at least one day a week. This past week was Thursday and Friday and it was acting fine. No new mods in the last year and a half except a braided clutch line and catch can. Battery is a Optima red top, only a year old.
Tried searching, only found a few dead-end threads on other forums. Luckily the car's not a daily driver anymore, so I can leave it disconnected until I have time to start probing connectors. So has anyone seen this?
I'll take a guess of corrosion on the sjb terminals. You said you had water intrusion before and it was fixed. Well if it wasn't properly dried out and no protection was applied to the terminals, corrosion could be the problem. Pull the sjb and remove the connectors and look for any trace of Green on the terminal blocks and the terminals on the sjb.
Anyone have a SJB go bad years after the last water exposure?
Like hobo said, it may take a long time (years) for the corrosion to get bad enough to disrupt the function of the circuits. But just pull it out and check it.
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Ok, car's been unplugged since Saturday and I finally took the SJB out today. A lot easier to get the interior trim out than I remember. And man, they aren't kidding when they say it runs EVERYTHING. You'd think the car was dead -- nothing was working after removing it. Really hope I don't totally screw the pooch on this by trying to clean it. And if I do, really hope the car will at least run with an unprogrammed SJB so I can get it to the dealer for programming.
When I first took the connector off, I thought "Holy Hell!". Once I took the box apart it wasn't so bad. You can see some of the corrosion on the plastic here:
Aside from some of the pins, it looks pretty clean. Ford at least tried to protect the board with some kind of silicone. There was also some corrosion on the white connector block at the top of the pic, so I cleaned that off with a toothbrush and rubbing alcohol. I got the pins as well as I could with a scraper and a dremel tool (used brass wire brush).
I know digital electronics can be sensitive to corrosion and the resistance you get from it, but this didn't seem that bad. What was suspect though was corrosion bridging terminals on some MOSFETs (at least I think these are...I did my best to read the P/N's through the hot snot)
I also hit the connectors in the car with the toothbrush and I'm giving the whole thing overnight to dry before I try plugging it back in.
Well this sucks. Looks like the SJB's got a shelf life. And not a long one. This is corrosion in the copper inside the board on the traces themselves:
I checked the pins on both sides of the gap with an ohmmeter and there's no bridging between the traces. Still, since it's in the board itself, I guess I better start sourcing a new SJB...
Last edited by Cavero; 11/10/17 at 05:39 AM.
Reason: checked with an ohmmeter
My source was a salvage yard and at 60.00 it;s a win win. Although mine was ok I was looking for one with foglights. I am very cheap and old so a dealer programming is out of the question. The only hicup I had was the car I got the sjb from had perimeter alarm. Went back to the car and got the map light out of it cause that is where the sensors are and all is good.
You already know what to look for in a used sjb,so if you see any green pass on it. Good Luck
It’s weird. I just went through this on my 96 Bronco. Not an SJB, but the PSOM. It’s basically a computer circuit that sits behind the speedo in the gauge cluster and actually computes the speed and sends info to PCM and does everything to speed, odometer, and even tells the tranny when to shift. Runs like **** without it. Known issue was circuit boards that corrode whether from leaks or just humidity. Mike looked pretty good too but the corrosion was inside the board and could not be fixed by me. There was a company online where you could send it in and they would refurbish it like new. I chose to buy one off eBay from an Arizona junk yard. The key thing was the PSOM held the odometer reading and I had to find one with similar mileage as best I could because you couldn’t change it.
So long story short there is probably someone out there that you can send this into and they will fix for a couple of hundred dollars or then there’s eBay or salvage yard wreck.
It’s weird. I just went through this on my 96 Bronco. Not an SJB, but the PSOM. It’s basically a computer circuit that sits behind the speedo in the gauge cluster and actually computes the speed and sends info to PCM and does everything to speed, odometer, and even tells the tranny when to shift. Runs like **** without it. Known issue was circuit boards that corrode whether from leaks or just humidity. Mike looked pretty good too but the corrosion was inside the board and could not be fixed by me. There was a company online where you could send it in and they would refurbish it like new. I chose to buy one off eBay from an Arizona junk yard. The key thing was the PSOM held the odometer reading and I had to find one with similar mileage as best I could because you couldn’t change it.
So long story short there is probably someone out there that you can send this into and they will fix for a couple of hundred dollars or then there’s eBay or salvage yard wreck.
Yeah why is it a $20 Walmart radio never dies but these crapboxes do all the time?
Bit of an update on this --
So I talked to Tasca and they said 5R3T-15604-BE is an engineering number, for doesn't put part numbers on the actual part 5R3Z-15604-DC is the right part number.
I called the dealer and they'd originally quoted me $300 for the labor based on the book (or computer), plus $400 for the part, and $129 to program. I told them that was ridiculous, I literally pulled the old SJB out in 10 min. The guy sounded surprised but said OK, $65 for 1/2 hr labor and did as good of a price match to Tasca as they could, $305. Plus the same $129 flat programming fee. $515 (w/ tax) sucks, but if I bought the part from Tasca and installed it myself I'd still have to pay the $129 programming fee, so that would all come to about $465 (tax + shipping) -- and I'd still have to wait a week for it to come in, and I don't know if the car starts w/out it being programmed first (couldn't find that in search). It wasn't a bad deal, so I paid the man and long story short I've got my car back
My source was a salvage yard and at 60.00 it;s a win win. Although mine was ok I was looking for one with foglights. I am very cheap and old so a dealer programming is out of the question. The only hicup I had was the car I got the sjb from had perimeter alarm. Went back to the car and got the map light out of it cause that is where the sensors are and all is good.
You already know what to look for in a used sjb,so if you see any green pass on it. Good Luck
Price is hard to beat, but I'd be paranoid that the salvage SJB would have the rot just like the old one. Plus like you said, finding one with all the same options would be a PITA. Don't know how many GTs there were w/ Shaker 500, IUP, and active anti-theft.
Price is hard to beat, but I'd be paranoid that the salvage SJB would have the rot just like the old one. Plus like you said, finding one with all the same options would be a PITA. Don't know how many GTs there were w/ Shaker 500, IUP, and active anti-theft.
Glad to hear you got it all sorted out. And I understand where you are coming from with my situation. I did this about 4 years ago with no problems, guess I just lucked out
11/4/17, 05:30 PM
5R3Z-15604-DC is the right part number.