Batteries - Alternators :: 1996 Ford Taurus Losing Electrical Power
Dec 27, 2015
Car started losing electrical power on the way home from work last week. Dim lights, blower stopped, wipers stop, almost stalled out when getting off the interstate. Barely made it home. 30 minutes later went out to troubleshoot and it started right up. Ran for about 2 minutes and stalled out from lack of electricity. Put voltmeter to alternator and it seemed to only be putting out 8.5v. Took to store to have tested. Replaced alternator and it didn't work. Reman alternator still seemed to only be putting out 8.5v or so.
Checked fuses and cleaned battery terminal and verified good block ground and good body ground. Still having problem. 1996 Taurus. What next? Battery is exactly 2 yrs old and was putting out 11.6 when the problem first started last week. Due to cold and this existing issue, battery is only at 6.5v right now. Can jump the car, but then after removing jumper cables car dies in 30 seconds. Should I have the battery tested? What else could/should I be looking at?
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I recently bought a 1969 chevy c10 pickup. I have been having problems with the electrical system, the battery consistently going dead despite a new battery and alternator installed by the previous owner. Is there a step-by-step for diagnosis of this problem?
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Was driving one day, and when I came to a stop sign, the car just died.. I couldn't start it up, so I pushed it to the side of the road.. I tried to turn the key again, and it fired right up... No issues for about a week, but then I came outside one morning, and the car was completely dead. No interior lights, dash wouldn't light up, nothing. (no cranking noise when you try to turn the key) I assumed it was because the battery was old, and the car had just been sitting there for about a week without being started up. I was about to give it a jump, but when I opened the door, the lights came on. I put the key in the ignition, the dash lit up, and the car fired right up.. No issues for about a week, until again, came outside, car was completely dead..
I used my other car to run up to the store, and when I came back, decided I would try to start up the DeVille again. Randomly, upon opening the door, the cabin lights lit up, and sure enough, car fired right up... no one had touched the car while I was gone.. I drove the car up to a shop near my house, where they tested the battery, which tested good. Terminals are all clean, and he made note that the ground connection to the car was also firm and clean. He offered to run a diagnostic the following Tuesday for $125. I returned home, drove the car once more over the weekend, but when I went to start the car Monday, it was again, completely dead. It's been over a week now, and I haven't been fortunate enough to get it to start. I again tried this morning in hopes that I would get lucky, but it's still completely dead.
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tonight at 1am: I put the key in and turn the ignition, no start, no click, no dashboard warning lights, no nothing. headlights don't turn on at allearlier in the afternoon - didn't check headlights, but no start, no click, no dashboard warning lights. Sliding 1 key into the ignition gave me a somewhat steady buzzing sound from the car, the kind you get to indicate something electrical is happening (I guess that's what it's for.
I wish I were mechanically inclined.) Sliding the other key into the ignition gave me a much more sporadic buzzing sound. Like metal wasn't making contact, when it should. A few hours previous in the morning - car wasn't starting as described above. Someone pushes the car back from the front so we can make way for another car, to come in and give me a jump. I put the car in neutral, and notice that the dashboard lights and buzzer is on, so on a hunch, I try to start the car in neutral and it starts right up. I drive it to the home driveway, no problem.
2 days ago, I bought the car. A 97 nissan sentra. What it could be? Again, never a clicking sound when starting the car to indicate dead battery. I'm familiar with that.
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I have a 1996 E350 7.3 pstd and it hasn't started since April... Van ran great but had bad bearings in the steering column. I changed out the bearings around the steering stem and it hasn't started since but turns over just fine. The main symptom is the dash loses power when key is rotating from the last run position to the spring back crank position. Basically halfway between run and start the the dash drops power. You can see the problem very well in this video I'm attaching.
I filmed this moths ago so the dash is in disarray and I'm using a screw driver to activate the ignition switch. The screw driver bypasses the key cylinder which I thought was the problem but it's not. Parts I've replaced include new glow plug relay, new ignition switch, alternator rebuilt, 2 brand new batteries, new cps sensor, and also a new pcm. All fuses and relays have been checked and most have been tested, pcm gets power in run position as well. Gotta get this thing figured out it's been sitting for 6 months
Watch the video : [URL] ....
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I have a 98 Subaru Legacy wagon and have replaced alternator FIVE times in last 7 months or so -- originally my mechanic (who has been awesome & doing all the replacements for free) thought the parts were defective, but last one came from a different supplier and only a month or so after installing, my car just died at a light this morning. Battery not drained, and mechanic was able to start it after had it towed there. What can it be?
FYI, bought the car used two years ago, so don't know whole history, but was fine for first year or so. The first time I lost power, I think it really was the alternator (and snapped belt), so I don't know if something happened or something was not reconnected correctly. (First time it broke was on a Saturday and my regular mechanic was closed to went to someone not very good -- and if this is useful info beyond just complaining, when this guy put in the new alternator, he didn't connect it to the battery, so I stalled out within hours of the "repair.")
My mechanic is stumped and I am at a loss -- don't want to sink a bunch of money in if this is the beginning of the end of the car (mileage is just over 100k, though, so seems to young to die), but need a bit more reliability.
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My 1996 Taurus has 202,000 miles on it. One day a while back I was headed home from work. I had the AC on and fan on HIGH. I all of a sudden started smelling something hot. I threw my sunglasses into the passenger seat and saw a gray haze in my interior and slammed on the brakes and pulled over thinking my car was on fire. I got out quickly and looked under the car and then under the hood. I then followed the HOT ELECTRICAL smell to passenger side floorboard under dash. Blower motor part so I changed it. The weather got cool again so i didn't need AC for a couple of weeks. Now, ANYTIME I try to put the fan on HIGH I get that hot electrical smell. The fan has 4 settings, on the first three it's fine, but as soon as you put it on high it smells very hot. My AC isn't as cold as it used to be but it was like that before the fan motor gave trouble. I think I just need to charge the system. Why my fan motor gets/smells hot on high setting. No fuses has blown. I definitely don't want to burn this motor up. I got new fan motor that has the same electrical connection so I didn't have to splice anything. Is something overloading??
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every few days, the battery stops charging and dies.... tested the alternator, and that provides a charge...tested the battery, and that takes a charge... the car runs off the battery or alternator...tested and replaced all wires between alternator and battery... cannot figure out what is wrong.
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I bought my 2014 Corolla new a little over 3 years ago. Yesterday, when I was leaving work to head home I went to start my car and I was just met with my starter making a loud buzzing noise. My lights in my car, car fob, and etune radio were all working properly, but the car was just not able to start! My coworker told me that he heard of a trick where if you knock on the starter with something while trying to start it, it might give it enough of a kick to get going. Whether or not it was coincidence, it did work.
I was able to drive home, about 15 minutes (still daylight, did not need car lights), with no trouble. When I got home I turned my car off and waited for a few seconds and tried to start again. It worked, but it sounded like it struggled. I did it one more time and it failed with that same noise again. I resolved that I would just go get a new battery in the morning.
In the morning, my car was able to start, albeit with some struggle again. I made it all the way to work, and over lunch I was able to start it again and drive it to AutoZone to have them test the battery starter alternator. They told me the battery was too depleted to test it, so I went across the street to Walmart and bought a new battery. After replacing it, the car started like a champ as expected, and I drove back to Autozone to have them test my alternator and starter. The starter came back good, but they said that there was a fault in the test with the alternator. I gave them my old battery and asked them to trickle charge and test it just to see if it happened to still be a good battery that was just losing charge, or if it really was just a dying battery.
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I have a '96 Honda Civic DX model, manual transmission. I replaced the battery, sparkplugs, distributor last summer. Yesterday, hottest day yet this spring, my car wouldn't start. When cranked, the lights came on the dash, the fuel line was running, the check engine light blinked, but then no ignition. Left it overnight, started up fine this morning. Took it to a shop,Mechanic said battery and alternator were good and a replaced starter later, I took it home. Driving home, the idle dropped way too low (no tach) and almost stalled the car (battery light came on) when I pushed in the clutch. Now when I turn it on, it starts, idles regular, then the idle drops again.
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So I have a very confusing problem. In my 92 Chevy Astro the battery occasionally stops charging runs down and dies while I am driving and will not restart via jump but must be fully charged. This first happened a couple months and several thousand miles ago but has occurred 3 times in the last two weeks. Both the battery and the alternator have checked out good, and the alternator belt is tight as a drum. What could this possibly be?
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This evening I drove our Subaru Legacy Wagon (1999) about 3 miles or so to the gym. When I pulled into the lot, I noticed my radio (tuned to NPR, no less) had gone off. Curious! A few seconds later, dashboard lights come on (ABS, maybe others). After that, engine goes quiet, car is dead -- turning the key does nothing at all, and the car is completely without power. Only the dome light works, and barely. I get a jump, and eventually the car starts back up --- but it took a while, and several tries, before I could get the engine going.
On the way home, I kept a careful eye on the RPMs -- when I was close, I noticed the ABS light pop back on, and the RPM needle go down to zero. I tried my best to keep the RPMs up by staying in first, and managed to park. Of course, the car was unresponsive when I immediately tried to restart it. Some quick internet searches suggest alternator, bad connections to the battery, and some other ideas. We've never had this problem before. The twist is that we're literally on the brink of selling this car -- we've got one more than we need. Thus, we'd be pretty bummed if we had to put much, if any, cash into the car just so we can get rid of it days later.
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I own a 2011 f350 diesel. So 2 weekends ago when it iced over in DFW I ended up doing a bunch of driving in 4wd. I pulled out a couple people, even pull out a semi.
After this the truck went on the fritz and gave me a CEL regarding the tcm losing communication with the rest of the electrical system. The truck was stuck in 6th gear and all things related to the tcm gear indicator didn't work. (remote start, backup camera, traction control, stability control and trans temp gauge). I did have drivability issues with the trans when it would sometimes bang gears when i would get on it suddenly and it could get generally confused at times, so generally I drove it pretty gently. The truck had to be towed to the dealer because after a while it would only get neutral of 1st gear and obviously it shouldnt be driven like that. They replaced the tcm under warranty.
The kicker is that all of that trans bs is now gone, there's no more confusion and gear banging.. drivability improved 10 fold. Obviously they updated the software but i was wondering if that was all that was needed to get this trans in gear? (pun intended) maybe they did something else?
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I'm driving a 1995 Mazda Protege with about 200,000 miles. It has been generally pretty reliable, and I have fixed things as necessary, but a DNR has been in place for awhile. The water pump is leaking coolant and need replacing it, so I'm driving it (and keeping the coolant topped off) while I arrange to get something else. The temp gauge stays in the normal range.
Yesterday on the road the car began to lose electrical power: the radio turned off, the gauge cluster and then the headlights got dimmer, etc. But it continued to run ok. When I got where I was going, I parked it for a few hours, then on the return trip the car started fine, the headlights and gauges were bright, but over the course of about half-an-hour they began to dim again. The car continued to run ok until I got where I was going and parked it. I'm not sure I want to drive it again until I figure out what's going on.
The battery is about six months old, and the alternator was replaced about two years ago. The serpentine belt is in place and seems to be in good condition. Battery connections and cables look ok. The "charging" warning light has never come on. The water pump has been leaking for a couple weeks, but this is the first time the electrics have acted weird. Would the alternator go bad this soon? Does the water pump affect the electrics? What do I look for?
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Have a 96 Dodge Grand Caravan ES which runs great. However, when gas tank is half full or less, the car will, only occasionally, lose power as if it is not getting gas. Every few minutes you can start it and limp along for a minute or two at 10 mph and then it will die again. As soon as I can get it to a gas station and fill tank, it runs fine again. And this only happens once in a while - say like once every couple months.
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My old 1996 Camry with 2200 cc 4 cylinder engine, frequently keeps losing power to the spark plugs. I have changed the fuel filter and the ignition coil. That did not work. I also noticed that the car was starting when I unplug and replug the primary wire plug to the ignition coil. So I have replaced the primary power plug with a six inch pigtail and a used plug purchased from a salvage yard. This is not working either. The Toyota dealer near my house want to replace the igniter and the Engine Control Module just to be sure that these are not the sources of problem. The dealer did not test these parts. So I refused to replace the parts without a proper test. I would like to test these parts. Is there a test available for the igniter and ECM that could be performed. I have access to a lot of tools. I need a schematic and/or test to test these components.
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I have a F250 towing a Big trailer and the RV folks have told me that while the factory seven prong will supply power to the RV, it would take a days to charge the RV batteries. So...
1) Does the connector not really significantly charge the batteries?
2) Is there a faster way to charge the RV batteries while driving?
3) Would instructions something like I found at How to Charge Two 12 Volt Batteries on an RV Towed by a Ford F-150 | etrailer.com work?
4) Would #3 eventually tax my alternator so badly that I kill it?
5) Would #3 fry the electronics in the trailer?
I'm trying to charge 2 6-volt marine deep charge batteries in series.
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My 2002 GT 3.8 with 157,000mi has recently and randomly been losing total electrical power after starting the engine. Engine fires like a champ then after 2-3 seconds will completely die- no engine, no lights, no radio, no locks, nada. The key will be stuck in the ignition and can remove it after playing with it. After a time that I haven't been able to determine, electrical power will be restored after I reinsert the key. Sometimes she will stay running after restarting: sometimes not. But she never hesitates to start.
After the first occurrence she ran fine for 3 days but did notice the driver information center would flicker. It never went completely dark, but go from bright to dim- which has previously never happened.
The car has been parked outside and it has been raining quite a bit- I did notice a few times there has been water on the passenger side floor. I had this problem years ago and it was supposed to have been fixed at the shop.
Also of note: I've had the known GP ignition lock issue where the key will not release for the past 3 years. Just been using a pen to manually release the lock from the bottom of the steering column. Don't think it's a battery problem as it is less than 2 months old.
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My 2001 F350 Super Duty diesel keeps draining my batteries for some reason, wouldn't crank on Friday. Put my battery charger on for a few hours and it started fine. The rest of the day fired up fine, on Saturday it happened again. Had both batteries charged and load tested today, they are good. Short???
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My F250 is acting like the battery is almost dead but its not. I've checked all the grounds I can think of, used jumper cables and clamped right to the body and still nothing. I put my battery charger in place of the battery and my charger almost caught fire! Where are all the ground points at and points to check? It was doing fine then this. I only found 3 ground points on the block and I bypassed all of them and nothing. There are 2 large on the front of the block, I was able to get one loose and "clean" it but not the other. The block to firewall is currently off so I can clean it in the morning.
But it didn't do anything. I can clamp anywhere are get the same results. There are a few threads about this truck and trying to get it back into shape. When it worked, when I turned the key on, gauges worked, RABS, Engine, and Battery light came on, GPs kicked on, etc... now, I get a very faint Batt light, Erie dinging, and not even the stereo now. This truck has been an electrical nightmare since day one. Spent 4 days on just under hood electronics alone. Haven't even moved towards the back. Also, Instead of using a 2/0 AWG wire to the starter, Can I use two 1/0 AWG wires to it instead since they used two separate grounds? It also still has a 2G alt.
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Yup, just joined the dead alternator club. Lost all charging capability, everything went dead on my way home in snow on Saturday. Most likely going to replace my failed stock alternator with a 185 or 270 depending on price. Where can one find a supplier that has them in stock at a good price
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