Alternator wierdness?????

[skender]

Ok,

Driving home last night ma and the wife and kid got caught in some of the worst rain our area has seen all year. Electrical poles wer exploding left and right. Lot's o flooding. About a foot in some places. We had to take a couple of detours here and there but we splashed on through. At one point the charging system warning light started to flash on and off the longer we stayed in deep water the longer the light would stay on. Mind you the water was no deeper than a foot a lot less most of the time. At one point the light came on and stayed on. That's when the steering wheel just stopped reponding altogether. Battery voltage just droppped into the low range and that damn light stayed on. I starightened out the wheels as much as I could and gave it some gas and power was restored. This went one for a few minutes until we got out of the flood areas. This happened to me once before in a similar situation. Never happens when dry of if it's just raining (no flooding). I was running the A/C, light's, Fog light's and the radio. Sounds like the alternator is dying or perhaps the battery maybe even some slippage on the belt. When I got home I inspected the dirve belt. Looks brand new, no cracks or glazing. I got out the digital multimeter and tested the battery and got a 14.75 volts. The alternator is on tight and no strange noises when it's running. Either tonight or tommorrow I plan on using my haynes manual to run some more tests on the alternator and the battery. I don't think I'll find anything wrong with it though since I'm running all stock here (no fancy setero) and it since it only happens under flooded conditions. Some water got up into a bundle of wiring on the drivers side near the battery but it didn't look all to severe. I'm thinking their could be a short somewhere. The only thing I can think of is the starter that sits low near the tranny... It could have wound up under water at some points while driving???? The most confusing thing is the inability to steer that comes up along with this problem.. Has anyone every come accross a similar problem with the ford ex? and if so what was the diagnosis and solution. Any help here on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[leebo]

Check your fuses. I know it sounds weird but at one point I thought I had a bad alternator but It turned out to be only a blown fuse. You may have shorted something on the way that caused the fuses to go. Just a thought.

 

[skender]

fuses

I'll check em out but if it was a blown fuse wouldn't the problem still be there? Once we got out of the semi deep water evrything went back to normal... Worth checking it out though... I'm starting to lean toward a short in the starter taht may have been under water for some time...

 

[PhxExplorer]

Have you checked your positive battery cable for cracks etc.? Might want to check it the entire length from battery to the starter. I know this is a long shot but the positive and negative cables run underneath the the truck. Hope this helps and good luck.

 

[skender]

Wil look at the battery cables. Does the starter short make any sense? Can the solenoid or the start itself be taking on water and draining power?

 

[skender]

the belt...

That was one of the first things I checked when I got home last night. I realized that the power steering is not electric but belt driven. What gets me though is the belt is looking brand new... No glazing or cracks anywhere... I spoke to a parts Guy at my dealer and I mentioned the tensioner... he says it's automatic and reuquires no adjustment. Now that I think about it... given the power steering anomoly, belt slippage makes the most sense. I am just having trouble swallowing it because the tensioer appears to be operating fine and the belt has no damage. maybe it's worth it to replace the darn thing and drive through my neigboors kids wading pool.. If there is water getting in their causing the slippage I think I may look into putting some sort of waterproof sheild around the whole thing. It just stikes me goofy that the engineers didn't think about driving an explorer through a foot of water. Maybe it's isolated to the V8's. The accessory belt and all the pullys are right behind the radiator on the front. The lowest pully is about 14" or so off the ground. It's a miracle they got the darn thing in there in the first place. Hmmm... I think I'll check the charging system using my haynes manual and invest in a new belt... Thanks for all the help gentlemen.... I must say this is the only site of it's kind and That I've learned more here about my explorer in the last month that I could have using all the tech manuals available that I have thumbed in the last year...

 

[skender]

afterthought

I suppose the belt could look just fine but could it have stretched itself to the point were the tensioner can't do it's job when a little moisture is present?.... Just a thought. Still gonna replace it. For $20 and 15 minutes what the heck..

 

[Big Poppa]

Did you ever figure this out? Mine did something similar the one time I drove throgh some deep water.
'96 V8 also

Thanks

 

[skender]

TUrned out to be the belt was slipping. Replaced the belt and have'nt had any trouble. The slipping belt led to loss of pwr steering and power failure. When it happens you need rev the engine so that the extra heat dries off the belt and it catches again. Replace your belt and check the tensioner as soon as you can.