I'm not great with cars and I know some of you are so please forgive me for imposing with a question. I have a mechanic I generally trust but I like to have at least a little knowledge before I call the shop.
Short version:
Huh?
Long version:
Some electrical glitches have started happening with my 2009 Mercury Gran Marquis.
About 6 weeks ago, the passenger side power window started intermittently failing. Sometimes it wouldn't roll up. Sometimes it wouldn't roll down. I'd fiddle with switches, try every combination, give up, and try again 30 seconds later and, suddenly, everything is fine. That's happened 3 or 4 times.
Within the last 3 weeks, something similar started happening to the windshield wipers. I couldn't turn them on. After no response to the switch for a minute, they'd start working. Once, they stopped in the middle of the windshield while I was driving in heavy traffic and rain on 45. That was no fun. I turned them on, off, went through all the speeds. Nothing for about 30 seconds...then they started up again. Stuff like this has happened 2 or 3 times.
Today, I accelerated hard onto the freeway and suddenly it seemed all the lights on the dashboard lit up and some stayed lit up. The picture above was taken a couple of hours ago. Apparently, I was accelerating so hard I was losing traction while my ABS was trying to save me from locking up my brakes, all while the parking brake was on. The parking brake wasn't on and the car was sitting still at a red light.
I took it to my local Auto Zone for the basic plug-in diagnostics. There were no error codes and everything on their computer screen was green check marks. The guy that did it said that sometimes this can happen when the alternator is going bad so he hooked up a different tester to check the battery and charging. Both checked out as in perfect working order.
He and I both reached the conclusion that this will require a much more experienced electrical diagnostician than either of us.
This combination of three lights stays lit after multiple re-starts. Nothing feels wrong; the car seems to be working fine.
Now, my questions -
Short version:
Huh?
Long version:
Some electrical glitches have started happening with my 2009 Mercury Gran Marquis.
About 6 weeks ago, the passenger side power window started intermittently failing. Sometimes it wouldn't roll up. Sometimes it wouldn't roll down. I'd fiddle with switches, try every combination, give up, and try again 30 seconds later and, suddenly, everything is fine. That's happened 3 or 4 times.
Within the last 3 weeks, something similar started happening to the windshield wipers. I couldn't turn them on. After no response to the switch for a minute, they'd start working. Once, they stopped in the middle of the windshield while I was driving in heavy traffic and rain on 45. That was no fun. I turned them on, off, went through all the speeds. Nothing for about 30 seconds...then they started up again. Stuff like this has happened 2 or 3 times.
Today, I accelerated hard onto the freeway and suddenly it seemed all the lights on the dashboard lit up and some stayed lit up. The picture above was taken a couple of hours ago. Apparently, I was accelerating so hard I was losing traction while my ABS was trying to save me from locking up my brakes, all while the parking brake was on. The parking brake wasn't on and the car was sitting still at a red light.
I took it to my local Auto Zone for the basic plug-in diagnostics. There were no error codes and everything on their computer screen was green check marks. The guy that did it said that sometimes this can happen when the alternator is going bad so he hooked up a different tester to check the battery and charging. Both checked out as in perfect working order.
He and I both reached the conclusion that this will require a much more experienced electrical diagnostician than either of us.
This combination of three lights stays lit after multiple re-starts. Nothing feels wrong; the car seems to be working fine.
Now, my questions -
- Is there a known, common reason for this? Or at least an agreed-upon best course of action to find the problem?
- My search engine inquiries have turned up dozens of different answers to similar (but not exactly the same) problems. I don't trust any of that. Heck, one guy said he'd fixed his dash light problems by replacing his seat. I'm dubious.
- Can someone recommend a good electrical diagnostician?
- I'm located in Spring, north of Houston, but I'd drive up to 100 miles to find someone who really knows what they're doing. Yes, I trust my usual garage but weird electrical problems are, in my experience, a different kettle of fish. Frankly, I've been burned with "mysterious electrical issues" before, so badly, in fact, that I wound up selling a Ford LTD because no one could ever figure it out and fix it.