I recently purchased a used 2009 XD LTD from a dealer. I had it inspected by my mechanic top to bottom and they gave it a next near perfect bill of health. After 3 days of driving I started the vehicle and the AC would not blow air at all. I then tried to put the car in drive and the shifter was very hard to put into drive unless I pressed the shift lock. Once driving it for a few mins I noticed the check engine and airbag lights turned on and the blinkers did not work. I pulled over and check all of the fuses and after visual inspection nothing looked burnt or bad. I called the dealer and he agreed to pickup the vehicle the next morning and have his mechanic check the vehicle out.

Though I now know I probably shouldn’t have driven it after all that. But, I did… And, after about 15mins of driving the power steering went out and then it stopped all together. When I tried to start it again it only clicked and did not start.

The next am the dealer and I met at the XD and he jump started the XD and it started. Though it started the check engine and airbag lights were still on, the blinkers, ac, and power steering still did not work and the dealer had the XD towed to his mechanic. After 5 days of troubleshooting the dealer called me yesterday and told me the mechanic could not replicate the issue and the car is working perfectly again. The dealer stated there were no fuses or relays blown, the battery was in good shape, and the only thing the mechanic did was take the leads off the battery and reset them. The dealer is driving the XD this weekend to try and have the issue replicated for him to then give back to the mechanic. I know with any vehicle electrical issues can be next near impossible to find unless it replicates (or at least that’s what Ive always been told by mechanics).

I know y’all can’t tell me exactly what’s going on here… But, I really don’t want a ticking time bomb sitting silently in my every day driver. So, after explaining what is y’all’s thoughts on all this? Does what the dealer relayed to me by the mechanic make sense? Can a reset of battery leads fix an issue like this?

I know it’s mercury and retrograde rn but I’m not trying to own a hooptie XD lol any insight would be amazing.

 

When a bunch of unrelated electrical systems start failing it's ALWAYS a bad chassis ground. These are usually braided straps from main ground points such as: engine block to the body and, if corroded and/or loose, they can not carry the current reliably and especially not high amperage loads like electric steering. Lots of videos on youtube of this, I can think of one from Southmainauto fairly recently on a newer Silverado. Search 'ground strap' for similar Scions/Toyotas and you'll find locations but they're usually easy to spot from below. Any half competent mechanic should've immediately thought of this after checking the battery cable connections...

You can easily test with a multimeter with either voltage drop or resistance (resistance possibly being helpful with no loads) but to reliably find the bad connection you should load the system with lights, defroster, turning the wheel lock to lock, etc. In this case I'm certain it's a bad main ground because the low amp systems like computers, dash lights are on a different positive bus than the bigger fuse box with the major loads like electric steering, ABS actuator, etc. If you checked the main positive cable then it's on to grounds. Pretty often you can tell they're bad by the corrosion on the straps or mounting bolts and they're easy/cheap to replace if you don't want to verify 100% with a meter.

It's common for rust belt cars and definitely the easiest/cheapest repair if you haven't already had guys throw parts at it.

 

I took the XD back and drove it for another 200 miles and the issue happened exactly as I explained again. I spoke with the mechanic and he told me that though he could not replicate the issue, he assumed it was the fuse 7 since from the diagram it is the fuse linked to the power of many of the issues I saw happen (power steering, ac, blinkers). I then took it to my trusted mechanic (AMC Automotive) and they diagnosed and fixed it in less than 2 hours. At the time of dropping it off to them, the engine light was on, the airbag light was on, at times the blinkers and shift indicator light would turn off, ac was not working, and it was hard to shift into drive from park. They verified with a circuit diagram the components affected (ABS, AC, Transmission, etc). did correlate with fuse 7. They found the fused popped. They checked the wiring and found that the vehicle had the GPS car finder sliced into the wire leading to the fuse box. They removed the wire and installed a new fuse and all the issues were gone. They drove it for 10 miles and said it did not replicate. I pick up the XD tomorrow. I will report back after driving another 200 miles and see what it does.

Why would the GPS be spliced into the fuse box? I do not use the GPS but I know it is original. It's an F700BT. I will say I have had issues with this unit as well. Though I haven't used the GPS more than once I can not get the AV1 or AV2 to work at all. Thinking of replacing it with a NEX or something like it but want to be sure the XD holds up first.

 

After another 150-200 miles the issue presented again just as before. AC out, engine and airbag lights on, no blinkers. I replaced fuse 7 and it blew over and over so I could only assume it was a short. I took it back to my trusted mechanic (AMC Automotive) and since it had only been a few days since I took it in for the first diag/fix they diaged and fixed the issue for free. It took them another 2-3 hours to find the issue. And, in fact, it was an electrical short from the main electrical line. The main electrical line comes around the engine and it had somehow eaten through the line casing and was touching the engine which was creating the short. AMC mechanics replaced the electrical line and it has been over 1k miles without any issues... So, I'd say it's fully resolved.

 

Time for new GPS? Enjoy.