Erg... Expedition alternator/battery problem, which could it be?

[snair2]

Ok well, I'll start with the simple part of the story first.

Today my dad came back from his trip overseas, and my mom, cousin, uncle, and friend of the family, went to pick him up. Because of some problems with airports and tickets, he was sent to another airport, approx. 2 hours away from home without traffic. So my mom told the family friend (the only one out of the bunch with a license), that they can take our 97 Expedition Eddie Bauer, and take out the rear seat for more luggage space and pick my dad up. Well they did that, and now they were coming back, and they reached a tunnel (forget whats the name of it) and it was backed up with traffic. So then they start to move again, but then the Expedition stalls in the middle of the highway/tunnel. The family friend tries to start it up, but from what my dad told me, it sounded like the battery was dead...

So anyways, they get the car towed to the mechanic, and the mechanic says that the battery was not being charged properly, and they needed to replace the alternator.

The thing I was wonderin about, when I drove the expedition, everytime i would rev the engine up, a little red battery light in the instrument cluster would flash for like half a nanosecond, and the battery gauge didnt have the needle in the middle, but it was more like 70-75% rather then 50%. So then I was wondering, if thats the case, doesnt it mean that the battery was being sufficiently charged? Could the battery have lost its life, or did the alternator fail?

 

[jimbo74]

battery could have lost its life... but to me, it sounds like the alt needs to be replaced, as the battery should not make the car stall if its running... the alt should be supplying the car its power..... it actually sounds like the voltage regulater is bad, and and some vehicles this is internal and hte whole alt needs to be replaced

 

[general x]

That sounds a lot like what happened to our expediton a few days ago. We were crusin and then the truck just died. It wouldn't turn over and there was hardly enough voltage to power the hazards. It cost 400 canadian to get fixed and that bill really put a strain on the reliability of the truck (especially after we were going on a vacation and the block heater decided to fly out of the side of the engine)