Unwanted air-conditioning
I recently bought a 2009 Ford Fiesta and love the car, but the moment you switch on the fan heater to either hot or cold, the airconditioning kicks in. You have to click the button on the panel to turn off the aircon – if you don’t notice, you end up driving around with the aircon on in winter! Is there any way to turn the aircon off permanently and just turn it on in the summer manually? Mark Roebuck
Your Fiesta is fitted with air-conditioning with EATC (electronic automatic temperature control), which maintains the chosen interior temperature automatically. The aircon will switch off if the outside temperature is below 4°C. The air-conditioning can be turned off manually, but will automatically come on again when the climate control or the demister is switched on. This is because it dries the air, helping the demist process.
There is not a method of turning the aircon off permanently. One of the reasons for this is that it is good practice to keep the aircon operating regularly, because the system is lubricated and maintained by the oil within the system. By using the aircon regularly, it keeps the lubricant circulating and the system in good order.
Regarding fuses 8 to 12, different circuits use different sections of the circuit to insert the fuse. The lighting circuit places the fuse in a position that will protect the circuit without wiping out the whole system if a fuse blows. So the fuses for the lighting circuit will only show a voltage when the lights are physically turned on and in use.
Assuming you have fitted the correct fuse, the method of adding fuses together as you describe will work OK, although resisters in parallel are a different matter.
This really leaves you with one problem: the dash display. There is a method of putting the dash into selfdiagnosis mode. Provided the steering wheel controls are working correctly, this is done as follows: With the ignition off and the key in the ignition, press and hold the ‘OK’ button on the steering wheel. While holding it, turn the ignition to position II. The word ‘Test’ should now be displayed, confirming the system is in self-diagnosis mode. As soon as the ‘Test’ appears, the ‘OK’ button must be released. Briefly press the ‘OK’ button to navigate through the different tests. Ensure the button is not held in for more than three seconds as this will cause the system to exit ‘Test’ mode. There are 27 test parameters, so you may wish to simply skip through and carry out the most relevant ones. Test number 2 is the first one after entering ‘Test’ mode and gives a sweep of all gauges to ensure everything is operating correctly on the dash panel. Test number 10 will display any trouble codes, while test number 22 will show battery voltage. The self-test mode is deactivated by switching off the ignition. Hopefully, turning on the ignition, the ‘Press OK to reset’ message will be gone. If the preceding instructions either do not work or do not manage to clear the display, the next course of action would be to connect a Ford diagnostic system to discover the cause. It may be a dash problem, possibly related to the surge when the cigar lighter fuse blew, or might be down to the communication between the steering wheel control and dashpod. If a problem is present, it is most likely in the clock-spring connection at the base of the steering wheel, but it should be possible to confirm this using diagnostic equipment.