Electrical Gremlins

looks like the recent rain has caused all the gremlins to show up in our cars.

99 svt, only thing non stock is axles, clutch and a torson. 10k on tranny rebuild.

this morning, noticed a bit of a whrilling sound, like a power steering pump going out. chalked it up to a bit of water in where it shouldn't be. plowed though a few deep puddles, and then sat in traffic. after a few minutes, my stereo started rebooting. then 5 minutes later, the windshield wipers slowed down, and the ABS and brake idiot lights kicked on. revving the motor up to 1.5k caused everything to come back to life. The issue did not repeat during the trip up.

during lunch, went out and attempted to track down the symptoms. at idle, adjusting the seat causes the ABS light to come on. could not find the whrilling sounds in the engine compartment, but i think its comming out of my front speakers ( got a piece of crap stereo adapter harness that keeps lifting a ground on the connection to the front speakers ).

when i get home im going to hit it up with a multi meter and see if i can track it down to the battery or the alternator.

checked the FAQ, the only thing related i can find is http://www.contour.org/FAQ/FAQ.php?s=probs&displayid=5. but this only applies to 95-98 duratecs. all my spash gaurds are intact as far as i know.

any thing i should be looking for? the battery light did not light, so im assuming (!!) that the alt field is not collapsing.

edit: sorry, this should be in duratec maint.

Looks like troubleshooting to me

Looks like troubleshooting to me

See if the battery has 14 volts or so when the engine is idling. If it is a lot less (like 12.6), the alternator is not working. You may just need a new battery (which causes odd electrical action) or just have some corroded or loose wire connection.

FavoriteMystaque said:

See if the battery has 14 volts or so when the engine is idling. If it is a lot less (like 12.6), the alternator is not working. You may just need a new battery (which causes odd electrical action) or just have some corroded or loose wire connection.

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the battery was dead after work. pulled it out, all sides were bulging out. replaced with a motorcraft battery. made it all the way home with no issues, no battery light, etc. left in the evening and it died on me 2 miles down the road. got it home on a rollback, recharged with a trickle charger.

when not running, 12.6v, when running 11.8. so no charge at all. since the battery light is not on, im thinking its a loose fld wire. ill be heading out shortly to check things out.

alexl said:

the battery was dead after work. pulled it out, all sides were bulging out. replaced with a motorcraft battery. made it all the way home with no issues, no battery light, etc. left in the evening and it died on me 2 miles down the road. got it home on a rollback, recharged with a trickle charger.

when not running, 12.6v, when running 11.8. so no charge at all. since the battery light is not on, im thinking its a loose fld wire. ill be heading out shortly to check things out.

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check your mega fuse as well...:shrug:

Sounds like a bad alternator or bad connection to the alternator, or just a bad ground, your voltage while running should be between 13v - 15V...

if its not his alternator maybe its hs serpintine belt? while your in their take a look at your pullies and tensioner too. (he did mention a whrilling under the hood)

I just put on a UDP and when i took off my old gator back belt. I could see that it as slipping from a build up of "worn" off rubber in the lateral grove of it. As the gator back has the normal v grooves and another pattern of gooves in a sideways direction.

devanmc said:

check your mega fuse as well...:shrug:

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megafuse is good. voltage on both sides when engine is off. poked around with an inspection mirror from above, could not tell much. ill put it up on stands and check the harness when i get home.

also one of the wires running to the battery is a bit melty. not exposing wire, but its not in good shape. the car came like it, chalked it up to the crappy crimp connector on the battery terminal, replaced with a standard bolt on terminal.

replacing the alternator has been the last major thing ive been dreading ever since i got the car, so im not looking forward to this one. im thinking something got shorted out when i hit some deep standing water on Tuesday morning.

how tight should the serp belt be? i can deflect it by hand a good 2-3 inchs away from center, and can rotate it almost a full turn.

had to take the SVO to work today... its pretty brutal in the rain. Once it starts building boost, the rear end wants to be the front end. got used to the way the fwd limited slip works in the SVT. :/

alexl said:

megafuse is good. voltage on both sides when engine is off. poked around with an inspection mirror from above, could not tell much. ill put it up on stands and check the harness when i get home.

also one of the wires running to the battery is a bit melty. not exposing wire, but its not in good shape. the car came like it, chalked it up to the crappy crimp connector on the battery terminal, replaced with a standard bolt on terminal.

replacing the alternator has been the last major thing ive been dreading ever since i got the car, so im not looking forward to this one. im thinking something got shorted out when i hit some deep standing water on Tuesday morning.

how tight should the serp belt be? i can deflect it by hand a good 2-3 inchs away from center, and can rotate it almost a full turn.

had to take the SVO to work today... its pretty brutal in the rain. Once it starts building boost, the rear end wants to be the front end. got used to the way the fwd limited slip works in the SVT. :/

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i cant bearly move my serp belt right now. It was easier when it was stock, but the shortened belt for the UDP is almost to short so it extremly tight feeling. so id say replace the belt and tensioner, just for good measure.

It you have a multi meter( not just voltage), check for continuity(sp, im refering to a complete ciurcut) on your wiring.

Not completely sure about that serp, but I think it should be tighter than you're describing IMO (I could be wrong).... do you know if the last owner changed the belt... maybe they got the wrong size? If no one replies I'll play with mine at work tonight an see if it moves the same as you describe, but I think it's much tighter... IIRC

devanmc said:

i cant bearly move my serp belt right now. It was easier when it was stock, but the shortened belt for the UDP is almost to short so it extremly tight feeling. so id say replace the belt and tensioner, just for good measure.

It you have a multi meter( not just voltage), check for continuity(sp, im refering to a complete ciurcut) on your wiring.

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thats.. great. ill pick up a new belt and start attacking the harness with my fluke when i get home.

i did my UDP on monday, my old "looser" belt was tighter then that and was slipping, though not enough to create real problems. With the UDP on and shortened belt it is very tight, im thinking maybe half inch of play. I had my dad pull the tesioner as far as he could and i pushed the belt down pretty hard to get it over the idler pulley.

his sounds very loose, which means that maybe that when the alternator torques down to create power. The belt is to loose to keep turning the pully, he also mentioned something about the power steering not working while he was driving. :shrug:

alexl said:

thats.. great. ill pick up a new belt and start attacking the harness with my fluke when i get home.

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well id grab a tensioner to if you can, they are cheap.

Thats the same brand i have, my dad has 2 different ones by them. Both, are great

No oil on the pulleys is there?

CSVT_2004 said:

No oil on the pulleys is there?

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not that i saw when i poked my head in this morning.

alexl said:

not that i saw when i poked my head in this morning.

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I just asked because I did my timing cover seal since i had some leakage on the passenger side of the block, which ended up soaking my serpentine and getting oil in the pulleys, as well as all over on that side..

alrighty... lets begin phase 2 of this crap...

spent a few hours digging into things a few days ago. replaced serp belt, looks like it was routed incorrectly, new belt was a good inch longer, but was a lot more snug when i put it on according to the routing diagram. still no charge.

pull the y-pipe off and check the alt harness. vref from the dist box is good, .2ohm from it to the + battery term, same for the charging cable. fld circut is +12 when ign on, so thats all good. at this point, its the alt.

take it up to the shop, they swap alts in half a day. picked it up this morning and the battery light is on. WTF? talk to the guy who worked on it, and we go around and around bout it, he says its a dash short. put a meter on the battery and its charging. get nowhere with the tech, attempting to explain that the only way that light is on is if one side of it was grounded. and even if it was a short in the dash, i brought the car in to get fixed, not have an idiot light kick on. they should have called me and fixed the issue. its not sinking in. needed to get to work, so i left with the car. its still charging now, but i really don't like the battery light on.

so i get to dig into more gremlins next time i can put some garage time in.:shrug:

i havent taken a look at the diagram from the charging system so i dont know what will kick on a battery light. I do know that a bad alt. will kill a battery so maybe take up your battery and have that checked just for good measure, since it was in use with a messed up alternator. Other, then that i dont know what would kick on a light, check main grounds again i guess. CSVT_2004 you got anyideas for him?

deven:
the battery is brand new. IIRC, the battery light is connected on side to the ign hot, and the other is the field connector on the alt. ergo, if that light is on, and its connected correctly, there is no way for the alt to be charging. (fld is at zero potential) and since its charging... ergo somebody hooked up something wrong. or there's a MAJOR screwup in my dash wiring.

ok, i just remembre my alt took a slow death(about 7months) and during the first 2 it killed the battery.

what you should of done was told the tech that the light wasn't on when you brought it in and now it is.... should of kept complaining until they fixed it for free.... which would be a dick move... but they probably would of been shady and just snipped the wires for it and said it was fixed..... let me see if I can find any documentation for that light...

• According to my wiring diagram on the 2.5L, fuse 30 7.5A is the (hot in run or start) fuse for your "charge indicator".
• On the other side of the indicator light is a green/black wire which runs to your generator (alternator).
• It shows a Black cable which runs from the battery to the starter motor, then to a 175A mega fuse, then to the alternator.
• There should be fuse under the hood, number 5, 15AMP, orange wire, which runs to the alternator as well..
• There looks to be a gray jumper at the alternator where the black, oj, and grn/blk all plug in...
• Alternator is grounded to the block it looks like

May want to check your block ground.... you should be getting greater than 12volts when the car is running, like 13 volts or so.... maybe a grounding issue.... It doesn't run through a pcm or ecm that I can tell... there are 2 fused powers for it, and one main power from the battery, which daiseys the starter. then that gray jumper.... I would make sure the fuses are good, and that the plug for the alt is tight and my grounds are good....