Tow woe

[Riley Smith]

I do tow my boat and that brings up an immediate problem. The truck is going nuts. Bah! Humbug! As if I needed MORE impediments to any sort of sailing event 

So my world anxiously awaits word from the car guru. Smells like money to me. Something electronic because I can clear the computer by disconnecting the negative terminal and sort of get the thing to run after a bit. And occasionally it'll run perfectly. An intermittent fault. The worst kind.

[Doug SC]

my passenger blinker does that and we had to have the computer reprogramed, but it is doing it again. Sometimes I long for the days of a simpler car to work on!!

[Scooter]

I've been looking for a '75 or earlier spitfire or tr-6 project to eventually be my grocery getter.

[Charles Brennan]

Doug, It should not be necessary to reprogram the vehicle's computer, for an improperly blinking passenger side light.
That points to a more serious, underlying problem.
A lot of automotive sensors and controls all run in parallel, from one end of the vehicle to the other end, due to taking a common raceway or path, if you will.
IF! Your local squirrels have been sharpening their teeth on your undercarriage wiring,  or otherwise chewing on stuff, you may have a partial short circuit between a sensor, a control, or the turn signal, or some combination of all three. 
So the computer gets the wrong input or voltage at the wrong time, from the wrong source and it (quite understandably!) freaks out.
IMHO, the techs that re-programmed your vehicle should have checked out the wiring and found the cause, instead of just putting a technical band-aid on it.

If the squirrel could get in there, your hand probably can, too.
Crawl underneath, (a good flashlight helps) and look around and feel around for frayed, and/or chewed, insulation.
If necessary, check under the hood, too.
If there is exposed or partially exposed insulation, your problem (or one that's equally baffling!) will likely come back.
And if it does, that's the time to start asking the techs, Rude Questions, in a Loud Voice. 

Back when I was doing electronic service, I always had to keep my techs from wasting time, searching for obscure or complicated failure nodes, instead of the simpler more mundane ones.   
Just like Occam's Razor, the simplest reason, was usually the right one. 
It's easy to succumb to Fear and Superstition, because of today's High-Tech, well  . . . . . EVERYTHING! 
But, don't.
There's a logical (and not overly difficult) reason, for any sudden and unexplained failure of an electronic system.

Apply a little hard-nosed, skeptical investigation, before you start sacrificing Goats and Virgins, to the Volcano. 

Hope this helps,
Charles Brennan

[Doug SC]

Thanks CB! I will see what I can see and also take it in if I can't locate the problem.

[Riley Smith]

Mass air flow sensor. Not too bad and back on the road. If I'd had the time, I would have taken it to get the code and tried it myself with YouTube guidance, but that would have been in 100F heat and taking a vehicle that MIGHT leave you by the side of the road all over the place to get the code. Sometimes living in the sticks can be frustrating. It's pretty much 15 minutes to ANYTHING. So the pros did this one and we'll see if that solves the problem.

[Chris Muthig]

It always helps to know the make/model/year of the vehicle.  Squirrels are a big problem in our area (I'm a service advisor at Ford in Ocala, and was an advisor at Volkswagen for 5 years.  We see alot of redent damage to wiring.  VW and other makes went to soy based wiring insulation on the wires, I just wish they hadn't made it taste like pecans.  The newer the car, the more likely it's a module of some sort.  I also see alot of times a taillight or headlight assembly gets cracked somewhere, or the rubber gaskets on the light bulbs (if they even are incandescent, alot of vehicles now have LED, making the housing in excess of $2000 to replace on some models.)  They've combatted this issue by making them positive pressure vented housings, but now most manufacturers have a technical bulletin stating if you have condensation inside the housing, it's totally normal.  If it's enough to drip down the lens, it would be covered under warranty if it's within time and mileage, and if it's puddling it's a done deal (if there's no physical damage.)  Once there's standing water, there can be water intrusion into the module that's built into pretty much every housing. 
Riley, glad it was just a MAF sensor, probably the best way it could have ended up for you.  We see codes for MAF sensors sometimes when the air snorkel is cracked, or leaking in some way.  If the code pops back up again, check that first.  Hopefully it's fixed.

[Doug SC]

The car is a 2013 Ford Edge. Where are the most likely places to be damaged on the model?

[Chris Muthig]

I'm assuming front and back blinkers both dont work on the passenger side, since it wasn't specified.  In that case, could be both bulbs but less likely, more likely the relay or wiring.  Look in the engine compartment for squirrel or other manner of rodentia, like nuts, acorns, shredded insulation, chew marks, etc.  It's extremely common here.  You could do the wiggle test, it's always a good try, turn on the blinkers and have someone watch them like a hawk, while you go around and wiggle every wire you see.  Pull gently in each direction, hold connectors and wiggle the wires a few at a time.  If the person watching shouts out (you instructed them to do that, right?)  then go back and do wires individually.  Check all grounds, failing that, it could be a body control module.  That's a bit more involved, you can replace it yourself but it needs to go to Ford to be initialized and reprogrammed.  You can get a used one from a junkyard (being a 2013 it's hard to find a new one), but it NEEDS to be from the exact same year and trim level.  Hope this helps.

[Doug SC]

Thanks for the tutorial. It's at the body shop being repaired after a run in with a deer right now and they said they would check the blinker problem too. If they don't fix it, I will wiggle the wires.

[Frank B.]

Been through the squirrel thing.  Went out of town for a week, left my truck in the carport, when I got back and started it it ran some kinda ragged.  Could not see anything under the hood that could be the cause so took it to a local mechanic.  Called me in an hour said it was fixed and that a squirrel or rat or some kinda rodent ate the fuel injection wiring to one cylinder.  Confirmed it was a squirrel.I started throwing a sock full of moth balls under the truck every time I left it for a while, seems to work keeping them away.  I've got the tree rats at about $5K in various damage repairs around my house.

[Wolverine]

Squirrels can be destructive. I've had them chew holes in sails and grass catcher bags, chew on boat and trailer wiring, nest inside a K&N filter causing $2700 in damages to the turbo when it got sucked in, and damage to fences and bird feeders.
Now,during the licensed season take care of them with air rifles. They do make a great squirrel pot pie.

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[Frank B.]

While I am armed for just that purpose based on your recommendations a few years ago, I have some problems with the HOA in that regard. I have a neighbor two blocks over who traps them and in the past ten years he has trapped over seven hundred.  He relocates them to the Yocona river where his son owns some property. He starts late spring every year and traps through the summer to get them out of his area prior to nesting time when they try to get in the attics. 

Pie looks good, of course I would have to lie to my wife about the main ingredient, she would refuse.

[Chris Muthig]

Wolverine, never heard of one getting sucked into a turbo, that's a new one for me.  I had one recently, a Ranger that the squirrels got into his evaporator housing, plastic chewed up all over the floor, pulled the blower motor and there was about 10 lbs of moss packed in there along with the shredded cabin air filter.  Still don't know how they got in there, all of the most common access points were untouched.  About a 5k job.  Had one yesterday, check engine light with misfires, only 2400 miles on the F250, found a big patch of fur down low, looks like he chewed a harness to a sensor, then got stuck in the belt.  Nothing left at all, just the patch of fur.  I found that one right in the lane, he opted to take his truck and fix it himself.  We see squirrel damage at least once a week here.  Funny, I've been called every name in the book over their antics, like it's my fault, LOL.  I am, after all, a professional scape goat.

[Doug SC]

Chris, a thick skin sounds like it should be part of your job title requirements! Don't people know you are only the messenger not the message. I'm thankful for a knowledgeable assessment that leads to a solution. What I don't appreciate is a mistake or a misdiagnosis that doesn't fix a problem. I do appreciate you sharing your knowledge freely with me even if my problem doesn't end up being rodent behavior. I do miss cars that were simpler to work on, but those days are long gone. Maybe that's why I like canoes and kayaks so much. Although, small sailboats aren't that much more difficult even if they do have moving parts. However, they do entail more work. I do like KISS, but maybe that's because that last S often applies to me.