Ok, I started another thread as the other was getting long and confusing.

Story from the beginning. I bought a 99 SSEi in March of 03. I discovered last weekend when I had people in the car that the ELC was not working. I thought the ELC had been working all along or I would have had it looked at while under warranty. I started fooling with it after work the other day and here are my results.

Day 1: Realize that ECL is not working. Try to locate 10A & 20A fuse per ELC thread. I cant find them, but then locate a E.L.C. Maxi Fuse in the engine comp. It is too late to get a 30A fuse, so I pop in the 40A lableled 'SPARE'. Fuse blows, burning smell comming from trunk. Locate burning at back seat behing the cargo rug wall. Get scared, make sure car starts, shut trunk and go to bed, waiting to hear fire trucks pull in.

Day 2: Remove harness from Inflator relay/timer (component that was putting off the smell in the trunk the day before). Put fuse in and the circut is dead, fuse does not blow. I go under the car and inspect harnesses at the pump for corrosion, they are weather packs and clean as hell, look new at terminals. Reconnec everything and insert fuse, fuse blows violently within 2 sec. Swear, cuss, and jump around like a 3 year old. Button up car and go to bed.

Day 3: Convinced it must be the pump, I remove it and inspect. Find that one of the rubber air lines has fallen off at the Exhaust solenoid. The inlet is PACKED with crap and corruption. Take drill and clean out inlet, being careful not to let any crap in. Then connect motor to 12V source, the motor runs, then connect exhaust solenoid to 12V source, it works too. Get all happy, and reinstall pump. With pump installed and connected pop in another 30A fuse. It blows within 2 sec. I then replace all the rubber lines thinking they are bad, I put the fuse in and it throws sparks like crazy, I pull it so it won't blow, as I didnt hear the pump kick on.

I then look for the relay, to see if that is bad. I drop the passengers I/P panel and look at the relays. I notice something starge right off. The Relay in the 5th spot from the bottom of the strip is in upside down. I pull it and sure enough, the markings on the relay do not match the markings on the relay block. I then test the circut at the MAXI block and it throws sparks bad as I try to install it. I pull it so it will not blow. I now repeat this procedure for ALL the relays on the passengers side, and the E.C.L. circut is still live. So, now I pull the pump harness, do fuse/spark test, still live. I leave pump disconnected, and disconnect the ECL height sensor harness, the circut is still live! So I connect it all back up. I now pull the harness to the inflator timer-relay. The circut is dead, I reinstall the harness and disconnect the inflator solenoid harness, the circut is live again.

I am now thinking that the Inflator timer-relay is bad. But it bothers me that that relay is in upside down, and that the rubber hose was off and the inlet PACKED with road grime! Does ANYONE have any help? I am using the electrical diagram that is on the ELC thread, which seams close except that shows a 10A fuse and a 20A fuse and I only seam to have a 30A MAXI fuse. Sorry for the book, but I cant afford the $70 dealer diagonosic charge for this, but I want to get it fixed.

Thanks,

Jay

Had the electrical tech at work look at my relay/timer today, he tested every component and circuit in the relay/timer, and it checks out OK. So does the solenoid for the inflator. We looked over the schematic and think we have narrowed it to the dark blue wire that goes from the timer/relay to the ELC height sensor.

Jay

If that'* been chafing on something and is grounding itself to the body, that'* your problem.

Instead of plugging in Maxifuses and having them explode in your face, plug in a voltmeter across the fuse contacts. With the system switched off, you should see no voltage showing. If there'* a short to ground, the voltmeter will show you 12 volts across the fuse contacts. You can leave the voltmeter connected like that while you hunt down the short circuit.

P.*. If you unplug the components that that circuit serves, and you still see 12 volts showing at the fuse contacts, then the wiring harness itself is shorting to ground somewhere.

The plastic panel that houses the inflator switch and covers the rear of the tunk was the culpret. One of the Torq head screws that holds it on was driven right through the wiring harness. I wonder if it happened at the factory and no one EVER knew! It even melted some of the plastic, but was not visable without removing the cover. I fixed the wire and it all works!

Jason

Torx...

Congratulations! Isn't it fun to fix something that may _never_ have worked right before?

Yep, and not paying the dealer $68/hr was nice too!

Jay