Not an ordinary electrical issue

[kingjames924]

Hello LVC!

This is my first thread here. I'm a new member but I am a fan of this site and I use it regularly for all of my LS needs. I want to thank all of you for helping me through all of my issues. Now I'm having an issue that doesnt have a clear cut answer......

I have a 2001 LS V8. It was a normal Friday in Las Vegas. I get into my car after work and had no issues prior. My power seat stopped working, and the memory seat button didnt work as well. it only adjusted the steering wheel and mirrors.

When i turned on the car, it started to idle high around 2000 rpm and stay there. then went back down briefly, then high again. I drove home, looked on this wonderful site and saw that it could be the IACV. So i planned my sunday around an attempted cleaning of the IACV.

Saturday i went to the store just to see if it was a fluke, and the master control for the windows stopped working, so i couldnt open or close my windows. tried the other windows and they went down only on each doors individual switch.

Sunday, me and my friend cleaned out the throttle body along with the IACV. The problem persisted along with all of the other issues. I sat down in the drivers side of my car with the thought of buying a new IACV. when i sat down the idle went back to normal, the seat worked and the windows worked. I got back up and the problems happened again. Sat down, it was fixed again.

My friend smacked the power seat buttons with the screwdriver, and everything started working again. i readjusted the seat to go back up. and no more idle problems since.

But now my power seat and windows work intermittently (aka sometimes they do sometimes they dont). I can get it to work temporarily by removing and replacing the 20a fuse in slot 21. Something i did notice, is that the relays are warmer than normal. they are supposed to be the temp of everything else in the area, but are warm borderline hot.

So i have 3 questions at this point.

1: What do you think could be wrong with the windows and power seat?
2: Is there a wire that goes under the carpet that could be frayed or short that can cause the IACV to malfunction?
3: Could the fusebox and adjoining wires be the cause of this whole thing, especially with the relays being warm?

All help is appreciated and respected! Thank you in advance

 

[oddball]

Pull your seat, flip it over and check the wiring. Also the harness that runs under the carpet to the seat. If the motors work at all then it's really easy to remove the seat.
I doubt anyone has had this particular issue, so you'll have to poke around and see what happens. I would expect it to be some damaged wiring. Good luck!

The idle shouldn't be related to the seat/mirror issues. IACV would be my best guess as well. It may be worth checking/cleaning the MAF. It's job is the toughest at idle. If you have a OBD monitor, it would be good to monitor the MAF output to see if it looks reasonable.

 

[joegr]

While it's unlikely to be all of your problem, you may want to replace the relays (at least the SSP relays) in the trunk and clean up the relay sockets. Do you by chance have an aftermarket battery without the vent tube connection?

 

[Hawk03]

The only thing I can possibly help with is the high idle. You may need a new throttle positioning sensor.

http://www.lincolnvscadillac.com/showthread.php?t=56453

 

[kingjames924]

Ok i've been driving the car for about a week now. the IACV seems calm, however when i get into the vehicle harshly or in a hurry the idle wants to jump but comes down to earth. Now a new weirder issue has popped up....

The power seats, windows and mirrors only work when the car is off. when it on, fuggedaboutit. not working whatsoever.

also i did change the battery mainly because the mount it was sitting on provided no ventilation (It was an optima battery, and from what i was told there is no specific configuration for it, which is why it is deemed incompatible in the LS). the battery stays decent. but the fusebox is still hot. i will change the relays and clean out the relay sockets and see what happens.