there is no body control module . it's probably a bad ground on the negative battery terminal

 

Why does Rockauto list a BCM then? http://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/...ford,2000,escort,2.0l+l4+dohc,1420489,electrical,body+control+module+(bcm),2888

I'm not so sure it's a battery ground because it starts and runs just fine. No issues when turning on the lights, it's just when the brakes or directions are applied. It seems that somehow the stop lights are related to the problem some how.

 

I will be interested in the solution. On our 91LX the wife showed me that the headlamps go off when she flips the turns signal stalk for a right turn. Im going to take the clamshell off, and hope its just a connector coming loose somewhere inside the "multi-function swtich".

 

I was talking with someone who had a similar problem. It turned out to be the two filaments in the 1157 bulb were touching. I did check mine, both are OK. I did have a minor fender bender a few days before. It just started to rain, the road was slick and the traffic stopped suddenly. Broke one of the turn signal housings slightly.

It seems to be ok when everything is cold but once the car has been running for a while it happens. I don't think it's a bad battery ground, the car starts just fine and the tail lights seem to work fine. This symptom is more of an electronic component going bad. Oh well.

 

the main thing to look for is the small black wires on the negative battery terminal. If they are corroded, they can cause all sorts of havoc!

 

Thanks for the advice I will check that. I was poking around the trunk the other day and thought I found something. The PO had the wire harness for the deck lid taped up by the hinge. I thought for sure I was going to find either a frayed wire. It was just the jacket missing and the wires were fine.

 

My dash lights and gauges are cutting out momentarily when I step on the brake pedal and some times when I use the turn signals.

Has all the earmarks of a bad ground system. Do as pextor said above and check/clean all other ground locations that connect to the chassis.

 

the main thing to look for is the small black wires on the negative battery terminal. If they are corroded, they can cause all sorts of havoc!

I pulled them off today, they didn't appear to have corrosion but they did look a little oily and dirty. I sprayed some brake clean then lubed everything with antisieze. Let's see how that goes. The negative battery term was a little loose but not bad, the nut and bolt were as tight as they were going to go. Everything looked fine, I put antiseize on that when I replaced the battery, zero corrosion but I put a little more on.

 

Some people replace the "black box" connector the small ground wires connect in with other connectors. On my zx2 project car I have used some battery ground lugs that have extra holes for the small wires. Bad grounds can cause strange things to happen.

 

That's pretty slick.

 

Looks like it was a bad ground. Both battery terminal bolts were tight but I could still move the cables a little bit. The battery connections were clean. I had used antiseize on them when I put the battery in a few months ago. The black connectors on the neg side while they didn't appear to have corrosion, they did look oily and dirty. Cleaned them up with brake clean then applied antiseize to the terminals. I had to wait a couple days because the problem didn't show up until I drove the car for about 20 minutes and normally I don't drive it during the week, I have a company vehicle I use for work. Yesterday I went on my weekly 150 mile trip back home and all was fine. Thanks to all for their help! It was very much appreciated!

 

Thank you for the feedback.

 

Hey, no problem. You guys have been great.