Hey Ford Owners Club,

I bought a 1996 Fiesta Saphire last week or so for a very decent price considering the engine was replaced at 48,000 miles and has only done 30,000 since. However the locks were dodgy which I was told but have been working ok up until today when my luck ran out and I had to try and break into my car and then when that didn't work, call the AA to come and break into my car...

During all of this the immobiliser got activated but we managed to get the windows down by connecting his power supply up to mine to get the ignition on and shoving a stick through the wedged open door. The locks went super spazzy and so we had to take the Central locking fuse out.

Anyway, it doesn't seem that much has been affected thankfully other than I have just done a 45 minute journey and I noticed that the electric window buttons were incredibly hot. It was night so I wasn't using them so not like they had any reason whatsoever to get so hot and distressed. I checked under the hood and the engine also seemed very hot however my air conditioning still came out cool and didn't idicate any unusual behaviour to me. I have taken it on several journeys of around this length or longer since I've had it and not noticed any problems at all. It could be that this was happening before and I didn't notice but I can't help but feel that it's only happening because of the problems earlier on in the day... I'm a bit concerned so hoping someone might know what to do or suggest to help. Guessing this is the right place to ask!

Thanks,

Zak

Hot switchgear is not good - beware of an electrical fire

Ok. Any ideas what to do to stop it getting so hot and avoid an electrical fire?

I also noticed today that it's humming more than it should in between gears. It feels a bit like my friends similar aged Escort that needs the gearbox retracking or something because it revs up on its own between gears. Although mine isn't massively reving up it just feels like it is continuing a slightly exaggerated rev that's like a hum. When I stop and put it in neutral or first with the clutch down it takes maybe 5 seconds or so to calm down and sit comfortably...

Electrical heat is normally generated when there is short circuit & the fuse protecting that circuit isn't blowing for some reason, those switches stand a real chance of igniting

The switches could be faulty

Ok, is it the kind of thing a garage might be able to fix easily?

If they've got a decent sparky - yes

I seriously would advise not driving the car until the switch issue is fixed

I'm at work and my drive home is an hour long... However there is a garage on the road so I will pop in there in a minute, hopefully they can fix it

I'm at work and my drive home is an hour long... However there is a garage on the road so I will pop in there in a minute, hopefully they can fix it

has the fuse been removed for the windows?

I'd at least pull the electric window fuse(s) before I drove it too far

Great minds & all that Stef ! :)

Just been to the garage and they've taken the electric window fuse out for now to see if the problem persists. Guna book it in when they're free in about a week. Hopefully it's just that and I won't burst into flames on my way home! D:

The switches should now not get hot with the fuse removed - but touch them periodically to check

I would book the car in with an auto electrician unless of course the garage you are going to use have one.

*UPDATE*

So I survived the drive home! However, regardless of the fuse being removed the buttons got really hot again... So I tried turning off my lights and hey presto they cooled down! I tried putting my fuse back in and my windows were fully functional again but my buttons still didn't heat up!

So it seems for some reason when my lights are on, the bulb or something that lights the button up is what is getting so hot...

Where do I go from here? Is there a way of removing the bulbs or something so that they don't heat up (because I don't really need them, at all)? Will that work? Is it likely that that is still a circuitry issue or just that they are crapy bulbs or something? I don't know... Hopefully someone could shed some light on this for me because I'm a little stumped! Haha

Also:

When I stopped I tried listening whilst turning the lights on and off and there is a change in the engine noise. Mainly when I turn them off its almost like my engine does a quite little sigh of relief... Seemed weird to me as I've never really thought of the lights being in any way connected to the engines behaviour. I thought it just ran off the battery and sort of bypassed the engine..?

Mmmm . . . these bulbs should not get THAT hot . . I can only think that the bulbs could be the incorrect wattage ? / battery may be being overcharged ? / possible faulty alternator ? loose / dodgy connections to the illumination of the switches ?

I'd take the bulbs out & see what wattage they are as a first step - then come back to us

Lights on put a load / demand on the electrical supply system ( alternator & battery ) & sometimes when there is high electrical demand one can hear the engine note change, tickover generally decreases a tad with electrical load & vice versa - especially on older cars

I agree with Mark.

It could possibly be a faulty alternator voltage regulator, which could have been damaged by the actions taken to break into the car.

This should be easily diagnosed by any competent auto electrician.

I think a dodgy alternator seems quite probable, do they usually cost much to replace or fix?

The button to release the boot has also been a bit temperamental not sure if it has anything to do with the central locking, immobiliser or electric windows or maybe that's related to the alternator too?

How do I take the bulbs out? Haha