Here's a doozy for ya...

[mattinpismo]

So this morning I took off the driver side door panel to have a look at a broken door lock mechanism... I had both the doors open so I unhooked the battery as to not drain it...
I futzed with the door for a bit, rigged it so that we could still lock/unlock the door even though some spring had broken deep in there.

After that, I checked and cleaned up some fuses since the overhead instrument cluster decided to go out last week as well....
So, rehooked the battery, put the door panels back on, tested it.....
Still no overhead cluster, but the doors lock / unlock so okay whatever.

NOW, decide to drive it to lunch. Its all good. Until we drove home. In the rain.

Check guage light comes on, ABS light comes on. Tach dies. Window power dies. windshield wipers working in Slow motion....
So we limp home, battery is totally dead now..

Could it be that whatever I did stuck the automatic door actuator drawing power?
Any help would be great, tia everyone!

 

[Roger84]

poltergeist?

 

[parad1mg]

poltergeist?

lol.. it is almost halloween y'know...

 

[xFatcatx]

Maybe by chance (and bad timing) your alternator went out? I would take it and the battery in and have them tested.

 

[mattinpismo]

I hate those damn poltergeist's!

Well, it stopped raining so I went out and charged the battery for a bit. Took off the driver door panel and undid what I rigged this morning...

Hooked the battery back up and everything seemed fine. Until I turned on the headlights. they were extremely dim, and then the ABS light came back on and the tach died again.....

Do we have voltage regulators on these?

Next stop I guess will be to auto zone to pick up another battery? I will have to do a search to see how hard it is to replace the alternator...

Any other guesses? Thanks for the help so far.

 

[xFatcatx]

Do you have a Hanes manuel? If not go buy one for your year and model first. It will tell you exactly how to take out your alternator. Its a very simple job. I would get a Hanes if you dont have one yet (which you should always buy one the day you buy a new car) pull the alternator and battery and have them tested (for free, like at Autozone) before you buy a new battery and put it into a car with a possible dead alternator. Draining a battery all the way like when your alternator goes bad can sometimes kill the battery. Im not sure if they can test dead batterys so I would put a good charge on it, unless you are already in need a of a new battery then just buy one i guess. Get those tested before you start throwing money and parts at it, i could be wrong.....i was once. You should also always post your model, 4wd/2wd, milage, auto/manuel, etc.,, the more details about your truck the better. Good Luck

 

[mattinpismo]

thanks fatcat.

Could it be the alternator if we managed to drive it 20 minutes home with a battery so dead it wouldnt even roll up the windows?

The whole thing is pretty frikken bizarre to me.

 

[xFatcatx]

It could be. I have had alternators go out on me twice while driving. Headlights and dashlights start dimming, warning lights come on, tach becomes posessed. The car would keep running until your battery completely died with no alternator to recharge it. Like i said i dont know for sure, but its a "free" and easy place to start.

 

[mattinpismo]

Took your advice and went to autozone with the battery and alternator.
Dude said the battery was shot but the alternator passed...

Seeing as both the battery and alternator appeared to be stock from 99, I went ahead and replaced both of them.

Everything at this point seems fixed. Explorer holds idle and everything is back in order.

Only thing I notice is that the battery guage on the instrument panel seems to be a lot lower than I would imagine it should be with a new battery... I figure thats just the way it reads?

Anyway, I really appreciate your help. I was pretty up in arms yesterday Thanks again!

 

[xFatcatx]

Good deal. Hope that was the only problem. Did you get a Hanes manual also? I dont know about the gauge, you could try a search here, mine reads on the lower side of the halfway mark.