Lights went dim, ABS & air bag light came, died & left me stranded

[Dan Whitaker]

UPDATE: 6-11-09
Problem solved

See post #25

Vehicle: 97 Mountaineer

I was out tonight and while driving I noticed it looked like my dash lights were getting dimmer as I drove. I turned around to high tail it home. Then my ABS & air bag light came on & I heard strange beeping sounds. It started fine when I left home.

After this it would barely move as I stepped on the gas. Then I lost my head lights and it completely died. The battery light did not came on and it the gauge was right in the middle.

I had the alternator go bad two weeks ago. The battery light came on that time and the gauge was barely above L. I went to Advance Auto and had them check it on the truck. They said the alternator was putting out zero. I bought a rebuilt one and had driven it a few times since putting it in with no problems at all.

When it went bad it never did what it did tonight and it made it 40 miles. Tonight I had gone 5-10 miles tops.

Did I get a bad rebuilt alternator or could it possibly be the battery went bad?

I have a battery charger on it now.

 

[Turdle]

Dan,
It could be the battery and alternator,
if there is a bad battery cell, it can knock the alternator out again,
but yeah, I would definitely say the alternator is not alternatin'.



See if the battery will hold a charge overnight. ??

 

[Dan Whitaker]

It's been on the charger (charging at 2 amps) for 9 hours and it's not taking a charge.

The battery is Auto Zones Duralast. These hunk oh junk batteries do anything but last. It's only Two years old. The last one didn't last but three. I only went with another as the prorate knock some where between $40-50 off.

 

[97sprt4x4]

Just to throw another idea out there, my dad had a 94 dakota (i know it's not a ford :X) but his truck would drive fine for 10-15 min and then it would all of a sudden start spazing out. it would shut off, then it would start right back up, and do the same things. a whole lot of time frustration and money later, there was a wire that had frayed in the wiring harness for the engine, and as the wire got hot it contracted and pull itself apart causing the stall out and lights going crazy. i hope for your sake this is not the case, but it could be a bad wire somewhere that is causing there to be a dead end in the circuit and causing it to drain out the battery in the process.

justin

 

[dogfriend]

Also, make sure the battery cables are in good shape.

 

[Dan Whitaker]

I replaced the battery since it was not taking a charge. I put it in and the volt gauge was still low.

I drove my Mounty to advance since that is where the alternator came from and had them check it. The gut says the alternator is working fine and hands me the read out. I get home and look at it and it clearly says no voltage and there is a problem with the charging system

I then went to O'Reilly's and had them test it on the Mounty and they confirmed it is not putting out anything. I take off the alternator and take it back to Advance. They checked on their machine and it's only putting out 3 volts. Since the rebuilt one left me stranded they gave a brand new Remy alternator at no cost.

I come home put it on. I fire up my Mounty and the battery light is now on and the gauge is just above the L on the volt gauge. I double check my connections and the + batter clamp was loose. I tighten it up, no change and the battery light is still on.

I go back to Advance and ask them to check it. The guy refuses ( and I think he was either an assistant or store manager) since he just gave me the new alternator and tells me to take it O'Reilly's and that maybe their equipment was different.

O'Reilly's closed early since it was Memorial Day so I went to Autozone just up the street. They hooked up their tester and sure as **** the brand new alternator is not putting out sufficient voltage. The guy at Autozone told me to take it to O'reilly's just to see if their machine is showing the same results.

Needles to say Advance doesn't know what they are in for.

 

[Tbars4]

...There have been a lot of new/bad Alt's over the last few months and sorry to hear you may have gotten one...

...I wouldn't rule out your alternator harness, as possibly having a problem too..

 

[Dan Whitaker]

...There have been a lot of new/bad Alt's over the last few months and sorry to hear you may have gotten one...

...I wouldn't rule out your alternator harness, as possibly having a problem too..

I'm thinking I should take the one I got today off the Mounty and take it to either Autozone or Oreilly's or even both to see what it's putting out on a bench tester.

 

[fixxxer]

Autozone seems to have the most problem with their alternators, good return policy though, AdvanceAuto is affiliated with O'Reiley's in some way, go to the AdvanceAuto site and it will take you to the O'Reiley's site when you click on the parts.

 

[jlsparky7]

Might wanna check out this vid. Some kinda rectifier that controls the voltage gauge had a bad connection.

 

[Turdle]

Dan,
Could it be instrument cluster related? How long after swapping the clusters did this occur?

 

[Dan Whitaker]

Dan,
Could it be instrument cluster related? How long after swapping the clusters did this occur?

The very next day.

But how could that cause the alternator to not put out voltage? The rebuilt alternator was only putting out 3v on the bench tester. I also drove it for almost a week straight after putting the rebuilt alternator in. I also took it out of town putting around 300 miles on it the weekend after putting the rebuilt in and had no problem.

 

[Dan Whitaker]

I had the new alternator bench tested that I bought yesterday and it was not putting out anything.

They gave me another new alternator, bench tested it and it was putting out 15v. Finally I now I have a good alternator. I come home, put it in and fire the Mounty up. To my dismay the batter light is on and the volt gauge in the cluster is showing low voltage output.

Does it sound plausible that I have a short and I'm killing the alternator as soon as I start it up?

 

[Turdle]

I would suspect something in the cluster Dan. The first thing I would look at is the battery gauge. Please tell me you have you old one to take resistance measurements with, for reference-

 

[Tbars4]

...That's kinda what I was thinking in post #7...I've had that happen a couple times before on Ford trucks and they usually ask if you need, or they come with, a new plug kit...You also could have just plain old harness trouble...

...With the run of bad alternators you seem to have at the parts store though, I wouldn't rule out faulty alternator's...

 

[Dan Whitaker]

I would suspect something in the cluster Dan. The first thing I would look at is the battery gauge. Please tell me you have you old one to take resistance measurements with, for reference-

Yes I still have my old cluster. What I'm trying to figure out is why when I put the reman alternator on three weeks ago the batter light didn't come on and the volt gauge was right in the middle. The battery light didn't even come on Sunday night when it died on me.

I'm throwing this out just in case.

I put my new temp gauge in Saturday. It is electric and needed a key on wire for the gauge and a turn on wire for the light. I tapped into the headlight wire harness for these. I wouldn't think that would cause the problem. I did start the Mounty up Saturday night when I was done and didn't have a problem but I only let it run until I verified the temp gauge worked.

 

[Dan Whitaker]

...That's kinda what I was thinking in post #7...I've had that happen a couple times before on Ford trucks and they usually ask if you need, or they come with, a new plug kit...You also could have just plain old harness trouble...

...With the run of bad alternators you seem to have at the parts store though, I wouldn't rule out faulty alternator's...

I did notice when the did the bench test that the wire harness they used had three wires that plug into the alternator. Mine only has two but is a three pin plug.

 

[Dannyboy]

hmmm, I've bought several alternators brand new and refurbished that have gone bad (probably 3 refurbs and 1 new out of 8). I also had the Ford dealer tell me my alternator was bad on my superduty causing some issues and they wouldn't look any further into the problem until that was fixed, I changed it out myself with a pep boys lifetime warranty unit. That unit failed in a month, I still had the OEM ford unit to return as a core and decided to pop it in...guess what, it's still working today.

So I don't know who or how they do those tests.


BUT if you changed a cluster I can tell you there is a wire from your dash that triggers your alternator when the key is in run position.

You may want to read some or all of this article since you posted up other comments about guages.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=216599

 

[Dan Whitaker]

I'm thinking the gauge cluster I have is from a 95 Explorer. Jon pulled it from a salvage yard by him & sent it to me.

The reason I think it's a '95 is the part # on the gauge cluster. My original one starts of with 77. The one Jon sent me starts with 75. I do know for a fact that the CEL is in a different location on the new cluster. On the new one it is check gas cap. Also the temp gauge did not work & that is the reason for the aftermarket temp gauge. From reading I believe it's do to the new cluster being a different year.

The reason for the gauge cluster change was because my speedometer stopped working in my original cluster.

 

[Turdle]

Ummm, maybe. :scratch:

What I did was pull some parts from a few explorers and hide them under the torn up trims in the back of a rolled 97 v8 for when I was ready to grab them--

I might have got my stash mixed up--sorry