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Well, went out for a drive today and while at a stop light I smelled burning plastic. Looked around and thought "man someone's car is burning"! Glanced back through the windshield and saw smoke coming out of the hood. Pulled over in an empty parking lot and popped the hood to find the EBCM connector on fire and some of the pins glowing. Put it out with my extinguisher and got the battery disconnected. I'm also puzzled as to why no fuses popped and kept feeding it until the battery was unhooked.
Have any of you experienced this? I assume my options are to either get a replacement M code EBCM and pump for a 97-00 (mine is a 2000) or convert it to a 01-04 like the sticky at the top of the Tech section. Can a MY 2000 without active handling be converted to the 01-04 style? I feel pretty defeated right now, I figured the worst that would happen was I lost ABS and TC when this thing went out, not a fire.
Not sure if I should tackle this myself or involve insurance. I'll look into some shops in my area and start looking for parts, I know for sure I'll need the EBCM and harness pigtail with the connector. I feel like I could do it but the last thing I need is for me to get something wrong and cause more issues then start all over again.
Not sure if I should tackle this myself or involve insurance. I'll look into some shops in my area and start looking for parts, I know for sure I'll need the EBCM and harness pigtail with the connector. I feel like I could do it but the last thing I need is for me to get something wrong and cause more issues then start all over again.
Same thing happened to me, only in my garage AFTER a drive and withe car having been turned off. Second time for this vehicle. Had to install a new front wire harness.
Same thing happened to me, only in my garage AFTER a drive and withe car having been turned off. Second time for this vehicle. Had to install a new front wire harness.
Man that's rough, glad mine happened when I could catch it right away. Did it burn the wires into the main harness far away from the EBCM connector? Another concern is that there's now compromised wires or wiring insulation where I can't see it yet that will cause another fire.
It fried the EBCM and all of the wire connections to about 3-6 inches back. I went into the garage and it was smokey. Another odd thing was the alternator was HOT. Replaced that as well. No fuses or relays blew as well. It’s a strange phenomenon.
Looks like both the EBCM and BPMV are toast. I guess a connection internal on the board messed up or something. Gonna tackle the replacement myself along with replacing the harness.
I went into the garage and it was smokey. Another odd thing was the alternator was HOT. Replaced that as well. No fuses or relays blew as well. It’s a strange phenomenon.
I wonder if the root cause was a failure in the alternator, causing high voltage, and the EBCM was just the first component to get damaged by it. The OP should get the alternator checked out lest it just cook the next EBCM.
Fuses are rated by current, but those ratings may only be meaningful when the voltage is reasonable, like 12-15v.
Like, a 20A fuse at 24v will happily carry twice as much power as the same fuse at 12v.
I wonder if the root cause was a failure in the alternator, causing high voltage, and the EBCM was just the first component to get damaged by it. The OP should get the alternator checked out lest it just cook the next EBCM.
Fuses are rated by current, but those ratings may only be meaningful when the voltage is reasonable, like 12-15v.
Like, a 20A fuse at 24v will happily carry twice as much power as the same fuse at 12v.
I just want to make sure I'm tracking here. You are suggesting that the alternator voltage regulator allowed high voltage, which caused the EBCM to melt down...and impacted no other system in the car......and no "High Voltage" DIC message was reported. Also, not following why a fuse rating would become less "meaningful" based on the voltage? Just trying to understand the thought process here.
Wow that's pretty wild. Crazier still is the fact that neither of the fuses blew! Glad that you and your car are ok.
Just because excessive heat was generated does not mean it was drawing more current. A high resistance connection can cause localized heat to melt wiring insulation and never blow a fuse.
I just want to make sure I'm tracking here. You are suggesting that the alternator voltage regulator allowed high voltage, which caused the EBCM to melt down...and impacted no other system in the car......and no "High Voltage" DIC message was reported. Also, not following why a fuse rating would become less "meaningful" based on the voltage? Just trying to understand the thought process here.
I didn't know that a "high voltage" DIC message existed, In that case, my theory can be ruled out.
But since you asked about my thought process...
Suppose you have a fuse rated for 20A, and it is normally carrying 12 volts. 20A * 12V = 240 watts of power.
Then something causes the system to have 18 volts. 20A * 18v = 360 watts of power.
Power is roughly proportional to heat. A device can produce 50% more heat without blowing the fuse, if the voltage is 50% higher than usual.
And there's no rule that says everything has to fail simultaneously. Maybe they would. Maybe they would, eventually, and in the meantime some component gets to be the first one to fail.
But, again, if we can expect the DIC to show a high voltage warning, and that presumably never happened (else it would have been mentioned), then I'm barking up the wrong tree.
My ABS light came on, I saw the smoke, and I saw the Service Traction Sys and Service ABS messages before I shut it down and disconnected the battery to stop the current flow.
I didn't know that a "high voltage" DIC message existed, In that case, my theory can be ruled out.
But since you asked about my thought process...
Suppose you have a fuse rated for 20A, and it is normally carrying 12 volts. 20A * 12V = 240 watts of power.
Then something causes the system to have 18 volts. 20A * 18v = 360 watts of power.
You do not use a fuse rating to calculate a current flow on a circuit, and the fuse rating is the limit for the circuit. In your example above, if you had a circuit drawing 20A of current at 12v, you would not use a 20A fuse! ...and how does current remain constant with a voltage increase given the same load?
Further, for a given load that is constant the current would increase.
For example, let's say the circuit for Maxifuse 53(for the EBTCM) has a 20A fuse, and that circuit has a 0.8 ohm load. At 12v and .8 ohms, you have a current draw of 15 amps. At 18v and .8 ohms, you have a current draw of 22.5 amps. ....and what happens to the 20A fuse? ........
Have any of you experienced this? I assume my options are to either get a replacement M code EBCM and pump for a 97-00 (mine is a 2000) or convert it to a 01-04 like the sticky at the top of the Tech section. Can a MY 2000 without active handling be converted to the 01-04 style? I feel pretty defeated right now, I figured the worst that would happen was I lost ABS and TC when this thing went out, not a fire.
There is also the mk60 route, or something more fancy like a delta or bosch ABS. Supposedly the ford s197 abs will work in standalone mode too.
EBCM Fire
