I have a 97 Aerostar (3L engine, 2WD) with 250K+ miles, original owner, and perform most all of its maintenance and repairs. Experiencing a new problem I am unfamiliar with. Any help and suggestions would be appreciated!
Saturday, power windows were slow, losing power. My initial thought was the window motor is finally going bad. Sunday, while cranking, the engine turned over and all of a sudden lost all electrical power. I jump start it and it cranked fine...making me think the battery was dead. Took battery (~3 years old) in to purchase a new one, but had it tested first. Store said battery tested at about 45% charge, they recharged it and I figured the altenator was finally going out. Reinstalled the "recharged" battery and it cranked fine. This morning, after driving for about 40 minutes and two starts, I notice the ABS brake light comes on, then about 1 minute later, the transmission fails to provide power to the rearend (at about 45 MPH) and the engine revs when applying gas. I notice the electrical gage for the battery is far left (not charging). I pull off the road and everything seems to "reset" (power transmitted through transmission, gages reading normal, ABS light off), so I try to make it home (10 min away). After about 2 minutes, the symptoms reappear, and I turn on emergency flashers, but they don't work (nothing electrical working - I'd turned radio off to listen to engine). With transmission in "Drive" it was not transmitting power, but downshifting to 2nd gear did allow me to milk it along. Finally the engine dies. Trying to crank engine does nothing on battery only. After about 10 minutes, I jump start the van and all is fine for about 30 seconds, then symptoms reappear. It died again about 1/2 mile from home.
My plan was to stop at autoparts store to have electrical system checked. Does it make sense for all these problems to be related to a faulty altenator? Or is there something else I should target first?
Its been a great vehicle for us. Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks,
Joe Mc.
Saturday, power windows were slow, losing power. My initial thought was the window motor is finally going bad. Sunday, while cranking, the engine turned over and all of a sudden lost all electrical power. I jump start it and it cranked fine...making me think the battery was dead. Took battery (~3 years old) in to purchase a new one, but had it tested first. Store said battery tested at about 45% charge, they recharged it and I figured the altenator was finally going out. Reinstalled the "recharged" battery and it cranked fine. This morning, after driving for about 40 minutes and two starts, I notice the ABS brake light comes on, then about 1 minute later, the transmission fails to provide power to the rearend (at about 45 MPH) and the engine revs when applying gas. I notice the electrical gage for the battery is far left (not charging). I pull off the road and everything seems to "reset" (power transmitted through transmission, gages reading normal, ABS light off), so I try to make it home (10 min away). After about 2 minutes, the symptoms reappear, and I turn on emergency flashers, but they don't work (nothing electrical working - I'd turned radio off to listen to engine). With transmission in "Drive" it was not transmitting power, but downshifting to 2nd gear did allow me to milk it along. Finally the engine dies. Trying to crank engine does nothing on battery only. After about 10 minutes, I jump start the van and all is fine for about 30 seconds, then symptoms reappear. It died again about 1/2 mile from home.
My plan was to stop at autoparts store to have electrical system checked. Does it make sense for all these problems to be related to a faulty altenator? Or is there something else I should target first?
Its been a great vehicle for us. Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks,
Joe Mc.
