00 Ford Focus Issues

[Harritwo]

One more auto question if anyone can help. This may just be out of my area of work.

Daughter Child is 17, Accepted at University of Washington, Needed a way to get to the bus stop. Found this 00 Focus Se with 2.0 and 63000 miles on the clock I bought it for her, replaced the trans mount, a burnt our reverse light, and we have been driving it. Left for Seattle this morning and no dash lights. All fuses check good with test light and/or ohm meter.

Air bag light was on when I bought the car. Took it down and ran diaganostics and the scan shows no codes present, No Codes present for ABS, but it is showing a GEMS Fault.

With no dash lights, the Ford Forums are trending towards a chafed wiring harness, however I am not blowing any fuses and the only issues are the dash lights and the Air Bag light.

Dash light dimmer switch has no effect.

Any thoughts, tips, troubleshooting, advice?

George

 

[MTboatguy]

If you have a GEMS fault, then the GEMS needs to be replaced, the newer Fords have been a real pain in the rear with issues concerning that GEMS, I have owned Fords for decades now and have had to replace a few of them over the years. There are some real funky ways those GEMS affect things in these cars.

 

[Harritwo]

MT, is the GEMS a plug and play or does it requiring Dealer Programming? I believe this GEMS is located under the center console and is fairly easy to get out. Just not sure on the PLUG and PLAY or programming requirements.

 

[hungupthespikes]

Not much chance of the GEM being bad. Just a printed circuit board. The connections are a different matter. You can pull the GEMS out split the case and take a look, clean all contacts and the plugs/connectors to it.
Any water leak (windshield most often) will find the wires and end up at the GEM, so take a look for any tattletale signs. Ford has relocated the GEM higher up under the dash so they stay dry as the units age and water intrusion becomes a problem.
Cheap fix if DIY. Definitely a pain to do.
huts

 

[Boomyal]

What is GEM? I googled it and came up with zilch.

 

[MTboatguy]

The Explorers have been real bad in certain years for GEM's problems, they used to be located in the rear under the side cover under the left rear cargo area window, they were subjected to water as well as vibration damage, I had to replace three of them in one of my explorer and 1 in another of my explorers, never had to replace one in my latest one, so don't know where it is located. Two of them in one explorer actually had fractured boards in them from many miles on rough roads. Mine were all plug and play units, I just purchased them off ebay for the same year and model as well as options, took the side trim off, unplugged unbolted and mounted the new one, plugged it in and away we went, until the next time.

Boom, the term GEMS stands for generic electronic module and it controls various electronic processes on the cars, such as the control trac system

 

[Harritwo]

Boom, To add to MT's description, the modules on certain types of vehicles also control the anti-theft system. It makes them a pain when they fail and leave you stranded also.

MT. there is a module behind the headlight switch, i unplugged it and cleaned the connections and now have dash lights. However I still have the ABS light on and a GEMS Fault.

Do you have any thoughts on this one?

 

[MTboatguy]

The ABS light is probably due to a bad wheel sensor, Take it by an autozone store if you have one in your area and they can scan it and see if it is one of the sensors.

 

[sublauxation]

This may not help but I bought a '98 Expedition with the airbag light on. Turns out sometimes the airbag light will come on when the battery runs down to far. Mine was on because they had problems with the fusebox not holding the fuses tight and a fuse having something to do with the alternator would lose connection and it stopped charging. Hitting the right bump hard enough would wiggle the fuse back into place. I chased that problem for 4 months!


As for the ABS light, I once bumped an ABS sensor so it pointed in the wrong direction on a Jeep Cherokee and the light came on. It took me a while to find that one too.

 

[Harritwo]

Unplugged the left front wheel sensor, cleaned the connections, and now the ABS Light is off. The Airbag light is still on, the code is still showing "GEMS" Fault. The other code is "Air Bag Restraint Module Fault". Can anyone shed light on this module? Can it be unplugged without setting the air bags off? If the connections are not bad, it would seem the module will need to be replaced. Is this "{Plug & Play" or does it require "Dealer" Programing?

 

[MTboatguy]

Based on what cars.com is saying,"This fault light indicates an electrical issue in the airbag control module system that prevents the restraint from inflating properly in the event of an incident."

But one other thing to note, you might want to get a hold of Ford and find out if this car is affected by the massive air bag recall that has been announced. Both my 03 Explorer and my 96 Aerostar are on the recall list, they advised me to unplug them, until they got the parts in.

 

[sqlightning]

the GEMS module on this is more than likely the in cabin fuse block. it will have to be flashed with the vehicle data after it is installed