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how to fix 97-03 CCRM (relay box) so a/c works

2M views 164 replies 70 participants last post by  chrismiller 
#1 ·
the following how-to is on how to repair the CCRM (constant control relay module) on 97-03 2.0 (zetec and spi) escorts.the most common problem of a bad CCRM is that the a/c stops working. this is what we are gonna be fixing. when u turn ur a/c "on" the radiator fans works, but not the clutch. u can either fix ur old CCRM, buy a new one, or bypass the relay

NOTE: before u begin, i must remind u that ur car will not turn on if it does not have a CCRM, if its ur only car, u might want to get a spare one just in case.

Buying a new one method:
u will need ur part # on ur old CCRM:

i know they r different, but the last 2 letters "BC" are what determine compatability

Fixing ur old CCRM method:
assuming u decide to fix ur old CCRM. u need to drill out the pop rivets to open it. once u open it u will find 5 relays.


the smallest of the 5 relays is ur WAC relay (omron G8SN-UA-007116) which controlls clutch operation.


2 causes for clutch inoperation:
*bad solder joint on WAC relay
*faulty WAC relay


*BAD SOLDER JOINT:the most common is a cold solder joint. basically it means the lead and solder are not making contact. pic showing location of bad solder joint


u will need a 30-40W soldering iron, any cheapy one will do the trick just fine too :wink:


before u begin soldering, u need to remove the anti-moisture gel thing around the area ur gonna be working on. after that heat the joint and apply solder, inspect the joint and make sure it looks fine. note: u might need to apply excessive solder to make a good contact due to the anti-moisture thing.

*BAD/FAULTY RELAY:
this one is a little more complicated, it requres removing ur original relay and replacing it with an aftermarket one. Radio Shack partno 275-005 relay is the same size and has the EXACT same pin pattern. the only problem is that it is rated at 7-9VDC instead of 12V. this might cause it to have a shorter life but it will work.
link to relay:
http://www.radioshack.com/sm-7-9vdc-12a-spdt-relay-mini--pi-2049716.html
after u have fixed ur CCRM, now that u dont have rivets, u will need 2 small screws w/ nuts to close it.


*JERRY-RIG METHOD aka Nacho's Way

WARNING: some cars will stall on red lights with this mod, due to the fact that ur computer doesnt know that ur a/c is on and does not change ur idle speed. this should be ur last resort

this method requires some cutting and tapping into wires. it basically bypasses the WAC relay inside the CCRM. it supplies ur clutch with battery voltage from ur low-pressure switch.



the pressure switch is located on top of the accumulator (the black thing next to ur windshield reservior) u have to tap into the green w/ red wire and connect the other end of the jumper cable to the blue w/white wire going to ur compressor.

other links:
http://proacshops.com/artman/publish/article_18.shtml
http://www.autoclinic.net/article/ford/escort_ac.htm
http://www.feoa.net/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=29744
http://www.ford-forums.com/ford-escort/4569-2000-ford-escort-constant-control-relay-module-ccrm.html
 
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#2 ·
Good pictures and explanation for the CCRM fix, thanx

Regarding the diagram for Nachos fix. You said the car doesn't know the AC is on and can't adjust idle. This is not wholly true. The car does know the AC is on, but it is used to a slight delay as it synchronizes the idle speed with sending a current to pin #21 of the CCRM. Because you take clutch synchronization control out of the PCM loop, the clutch engages sooner than the car raises idle, and that half-second or less delay is gone, so the car may "stumble" until the idle speed catches up. My car has not once stalled with this mod, and if your car is in good tune, and isn't misfiring too heavily at idle, it should accommodate the change just fine.

Also, if you don't want to "cut" into wires like Nacho did, you can use quick-splices and diodes as I describe here:

http://www.feoa.net/modules.php?name=Fo ... 221#386221

Here is how the way I did it differs:

 
#3 ·
Hi, I have a 97 Escort that the compressor doesn't kick on this year so I have been studying all this info. I took the CCRM out and it looked like all the solder joints were fine so I didn't try to re-heat them and ad solder but I wondered if I were to try nacho's jumper method don't both of those wires go into the CCRM module making it easier to jump both wires right there? Also when checking for voltage at 21, 22, and 23 you would not have the car running am I correct or will the car run without the CCRM plugged in?
 
#5 ·
Balmira said:
Thanks for the info guys. I've been looking for information like this for a while now. Where can I buy a new CCRM off the internet?
i got mine off craigslist for $55 shipped. i was about to run to the stealership to pay $187 + tax... ouch!

u can search on ebay, or go to a junkyard and get one from there (just make sure ur part number matches) if it doesnt work... then u can open it up and fix it :wink:

to f150gt:

i tried testing my CCRM using pin 22, 23, etc. accordingly to several guides, but i couldnt get it right. so i used the plain and simple method: mine had nacho's fix so i knew the compressor would turn on, but only with the jumper cable. the reason u want to jump it there is because thats the closest place where the compressor and low-pressure switch are. the blue w/ white wire (Compressor) does go to the CCRM, but i dont know about the green w/red (low-pressure switch).
 
#6 ·
Thanks Jigsaw, I just tried re-soldering the CCRM and when that didn't work I tried Nacho's jumper method and that still didn't turn on the compressor, is the compressor fried or what? I am thinking about taking to a shop but hate the thought of spending a lot of money on this vehicle.
 
#7 ·
make sure ur not getting any codes.... u can also try jumping ur pressure switches. the low-side one is a 2 wire one (on top of the accumulator) the high side one is a 4 wire (close to ur air filter) ur compressor will only engaged when the conditions are right (no codes and ur pressure switches are working right) or u can have a fried compressor
 
#8 ·
Intermittant AC - 2000 Escort

Have a question concerning the CCRM on a 2000 Escort. The AC will run fine and super cold for 5 to 20 minutes, then the AC clutch shuts off and the air starts blowing warm. I was told by the local Ford dealer that we needed a new CCRM ( $500 installed ), so I went to the local junk yard and bought two (2) of them. I was sure to get the exact same number modules that are on my car. Pulled the air cleaner off, installed the modules, and neither one would even turn on the AC clutch, so I removed them, put in the original one, and the AC worked fine just sitting there. Then the next day, after about 5 to 10 minutes driving, the clutch shuts off and you can't get it to work again until it sits for a while. Then it may work or may not.

I was told there could be other things controlling the module which could be shutting the AC clutch off. Is that correct? And if it is, is there any way I can get it diagnosed WITHOUT GOING TO THE FORD DEALER?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank You.
 
#9 ·
jigsaw said:
Balmira said:
Thanks for the info guys. I've been looking for information like this for a while now. Where can I buy a new CCRM off the internet?
i got mine off craigslist for $55 shipped. i was about to run to the stealership to pay $187 + tax... ouch!

u can search on ebay, or go to a junkyard and get one from there (just make sure ur part number matches) if it doesnt work... then u can open it up and fix it :wink:
Thanks for the info Jigsaw. I went to the dealership and ended up paying $214 for the part. I just got it today and installed it. It works great. I was wondering If you knew where I can get the old CCRM refurbished? I don't want to do it myself as I am not good with all that stuff. Any Help would be much appreciated. :D
 
#10 ·
to GForce:
the a/c clutch will turn off once it has detected that ur car is cold enough... when the temperature drops again, it will turn back on. it will cycle on and off constantly, mine usually goes off for about 10-20 seconds, i dont know maybe u have the cold solder joint which causes it sometimes work when it makes contact. the other CCRM's from the junkyard probly are the same :lol: its a very common problem among escorts. u can always open one of them up instead of ur original one and see if u spot the bad solder joint. BTW the part number is the smaller number code not the big one. if ur car turned on with the junk yard CCRMs then u got the right ones, if it doesnt, then u got the wrong part number :lol:

Balmira said:
I was wondering If you knew where I can get the old CCRM refurbished?
do it urself. thats why i did the how-to :)

not hard at all, i would rate it a 2 out of 5 in difficulty. the hardest thing is drilling out the pop rivets to open the cover. once u get to the board, try holding it as much as possible by the connector or the relays. dont be afraid of damaging it, the only way u can damage it is by ESD (electrostatic discharge) but the traces are big and the relays will handle the charge so dont worry, if ur still afraid, grab a metal surface that connects to earth ground to discharge urself (ex. ur compuer case, u dont have to open it, just touch the rear were all the cables connect :wink: ) inspect the solder joints especially the ones on the small relay (thats ur a/c relay). if the solder is cracked (cold solder joint) then just re-heat the joint to fix it. then find some small screws w/ nuts to close it.

think about it this way.... if u mess it up, it wasn't working in the first place :lol:

EDIT: if ur still afraid on fixing it, i can fix it for u free of charge u just pay the shipping charges and send it over my way. im located in texas, if its just the solder joint, its a piece of cake, if its the relay it self, i can narrow it down to that and either replace it or let u decide what to do with it.
 
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#11 ·
Here are some photos of replaying the relay that i took.

Here is a picture of the board where the new relay will go. I removed the old relay but using de-solder which is a copper wiring that removes the solder once heated. It's a good idea to remove as much of the old solder as you can so that you can apply the new solder once the new relay is in place. This will help with getting a clean connection.
All the flaky looking stuff is the rubber coating that ford applied. You will have to scrap this off.

Here is de-solder

Here is a picture from the bottom of the board with the relay removed.

And my new solder points on the bottom of the board.

The new relay installed!

And now my A/C compressor is kicking in! It's great to have ice cold a/c once again! I am not sure how long this will last but i am hoping it will last at least for the summer. I would be wise to stay off of max a/c and just use a/c and turn the fan speed up. That should help keep the replay alive for awhile.

This project cost me about $22 which is well worth it. I payed $10 for the new relay shipped to my door, $17 for the soldering tool and $2.50 something for the de-solder.

If you have any questions just PM me and i will see if i can help you out.
 
#12 ·
awesome post! u just saved urself a hell lot of money :wink:


BTW, is that the same radioshack relay that i listed? i couldn't help to noticed that ur old relay burned out like mine too. mine almost melted and ruined the copper contact, i guess im gonna have to add another one or use a jumper wire.

BTW, the flaky stuff is an anti-moisture thing to keep the board from rusting out.
 
#13 ·
jigsaw said:
awesome post! u just saved urself a hell lot of money :wink:

BTW, is that the same radioshack relay that i listed? i couldn't help to noticed that ur old relay burned out like mine too. mine almost melted and ruined the copper contact, i guess im gonna have to add another one or use a jumper wire.

BTW, the flaky stuff is an anti-moisture thing to keep the board from rusting out.
Yep i know, thanks for posting on how to fix this problem. Because if you did not i would have wasted alot of money. If the relay burns up again i guess i will just install another one because i could do that every day for a mouth and it would still be cheaper then buying a new box.

Yes the blue relay is the one you listed from radioshack. It looks like a good one too.
 
#14 ·
VolvoPunch said:
And now my A/C compressor is kicking in! It's great to have ice cold a/c once again! I am not sure how long this will last but i am hoping it will last at least for the summer. I would be wise to stay off of max a/c and just use a/c and turn the fan speed up. That should help keep the replay alive for awhile.
Don't worry about using max a/c for extended periods. The only difference between a/c and max a/c is that with max a/c, the inside air is recirculated, so it cools down much faster. Plus, there's less chance of the evaporator icing up from excess humidity from outside air.
 
#16 ·
Jaybird said:
If my cooling fan does not come on (obviously AC not working either), what does that mean as far as repairs?
I don't think that would necessarily mean your a/c is no longer working but it does mean your a/c will not cool as well espeshely when the car is sitting. I would first check my fuses then try and connect a 12v battery to the fan and see if it kicks on. If not then your fan is probably shot. I hope this helped some. Good luck. :wink:
 
#18 ·
Jaybird said:
I appreciate the response VolvoPunch. I should have mentioned my fan works (kicks on anythime except when AC turned on). I keep forgetting to check my fuses though. Thanks.
u might want to check the fan's connector (harness):

disconnect ur battery and take a small sanding paper or somthing to clean the electrical connectors on the fan's harness. it is very common for the locking tab on the harness to break and have a loose connection. there should be a total of 3 wires...... a black, green, & yellow if i rememver correctly. the black is ur ground wire, the green and yellow are ur low-speed (A/C off) and ur high-speed (A/C on). u will need a 12 volt tester or a DIMM to make sure ur getting 12 V when u turn ur a/c on. if u dont get 12 volts when u turn ur A/C on, then ur fan's relay inside ur CCRM is shot. u need to either replace the entire CCRM or find out which of the 5 relays is controls fan operation and replace it. if u do find out, let me know to continue informing users of what each relays controls so they can fix their CCRM instead of buying a new one 8)
 
#20 ·
Thanks for the great description about how to repair the CCRM!

I was a little leery of using the Radio Shack relay rated less than 12 vdc - it willl run a little hotter than designed (as mentioned above, I was once a practicing engineer). I found a Panasonic relay rated 12 vdc/15 amps and for automotive applications, available on-line from digikey.com in single quantity ($1.42 for relay, $5.00 for a small order and about $4.00 for shipping). You can also get a 30 watt soldering iron, solder wick, electronic solder, etc. from digikey if you don't have that stuff.

Panasonic part number: JSM1-12V-5
Digikey part number: 255-1240-ND


I have a '98 ZX2 and I just replaced the relay as shown in VolvoPunch's photos. I was hoping that just resoldering a single connection would do the trick. Unfortunately, the old relay had a bulge in the side where the armature had heated and tried to melt its way out, so I had to replace the relay.

I have a 70 mile one-way commute to my local office (once or twice a week when not travelling by air) so I use the ZX2 I inherited from my son when his other driving exploits left him persona non gratia with my insurance carrier, getting around 30mpg. The ZX2 drives better than I had expected but its August in DC so A/C is not really optional.

I was trying a new repair shop who narrowed the problem down to either the PCM or CCRM by jumping power to the compressor directly after confirming a full charge of freon. They couldn't figure out which module and they didn't want to start swapping in expensive electronic modules to determine which was the culprit - a consideration I consider a strong point in favor of this new shop ($45 diagnostic fee to get this far). They recommended taking the car to a dealer who would have complete diagnostic equipment and could pinpoint the failure. The dealer pinpointed the CCRM but wanted almost $400 to complete the repair, which is out of the question for a 10 year old car that has transmission issues (3rd gear sychros are not good). I got out of the dealer $85 poorer for their diagnostic work alone. The good news is that I now knew exactly what needed fixing.

Looking for a lower cost alternative, I typed "Escort CCRM" into Google. Originally I was looking for a lower cost module, either new or used that I could give to this new shop to put in, but found this (and a couple of similar or related) threads that recommended a simple repair. I have a degree in mechanical engineering, although I have been in sales for the last 15 years, so I should have at least some skills in making things work and armed with stories of success listed here I thought I'd try.

I was a little leery of using the Radio Shack relay rated less than 12 vdc - it willl run a little hotter than designed (as mentioned above, I was once a practicing engineer). I found a Panasonic relay rated 12 vdc/15 amps and for automotive applications, available on-line from digikey.com in single quantity ($1.42 for relay, $5.00 for a small order and about $4.00 for shipping). You can also get a 30 watt soldering iron, solder wick, electronic solder, etc. from digikey if you don't have that stuff.

Panasonic part number: JSM1-12V-5
Digikey part number: 255-1240-ND

You can get a complete spec sheet for this relay from the digikey site, which includes an electrical contact rating of 50,000 cycles minimum.

This relay is probably available from other electronics catalogs, such as Allied, but I found it first at Digikey and $1.42 + $9.00 S&H seemed like a good enough price to not waste any more time looking.

Solder wick is a copper braid that you use to remove solder from the leads on the old relay to take it off. Just pinche the wick between the tip of your soldering iron and the solder joint. When the solder heats and flows, it will wick into the copper braid which removes it from the joint. You might have to repeat a couple of times per joint with a fresh bit of the braid to get all of the old solder out. With 5 pins even a little bit of residual solder can tenaciously hold the old relay in place so you might have to break the old relay apart so you can use needle nose pliers to pull one lead at a time out while heating from the other side. Be careful not to break any of the other components.


I now get cold air, which is great because I live near Washington, DC and its August and the forecast is upper 90's and 80% humidity. Total cost, including diagnostics, was $140. Considering this would be close to $500 if I let the dealer do it, or "only" $400 if I went back to the first shop I am grateful indeed for the information shared here.

Any thoughts on a mail order sevice that would troubleshoot, repair and verify operation of CCRM modules?
 
#21 ·
blackdog said:
Any thoughts on a mail order sevice that would troubleshoot, repair and verify operation of CCRM modules?
what do u mean :?
 
#23 ·
Re: How bout 2nd generation?

JackBauer said:
Where is the CCRM located on a 91? Can't find it. :roll:
thats cuz u dont have one :lol: only 97 and up (both SPI and Zx2) the 2nd gen ones (91-96) do have an a/c relay, but its a regular relay. i believe its located on the firewall. dont quote me on it, but i think they r next to ur windshield reservior or close to it, if im not mistaken there should be 2 of them. i think one of them is gray, but im not sure :?
 
#24 ·
:D Thank you Jigsaw for your fantastic post. My sons excorts clutch was not engaging. After reading your post I took a look at the CCRM. Removed it and drilled out the rivets. On the bottom side of circuit board the solder that you have circled had an off color to it. I cleaned it up and added a little more solder to it. Putt it back together and installed it back in the car. To my surprise the clutch is now working and the cool air is great. Saved us $200+

Thanks again to you and all others who post this good info.
:D :D :D
 
#25 ·
no problem, we are here to help each other out :)
 
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