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Electrical oddness after alternator death & replacement

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PeriSoft

New CEG'er
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Aug 26, 2006
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So, thanks to some help from this forum, my '95 Mystique V6 is back up and running. To recap quickly, the alternator had died, and I replaced the regulator, as when I pulled the alt it tested bad. Unfortunately, there was apparently something wrong with the alternator ITSELF, as when I put it back, it ran for a while... and then started putting 17 to 24v into the system.

At one point when I was trying to figure out what was going on, the horn and lights went with the car off, and the speedometer jumped to 120mph with the car sitting still, tach went backwards, etc...

Took the advice I got here and put an entirely new (well, reconditioned, or whatever) motorcraft alternator in, along with a new megafuse.

The car now works great, except for these things:

-My Pioneer head unit is dead :( :(
-The LCD clock is dead. You can see the time, and it responds to button presses, but the backlight is gone.
-The electric mirrors don't work.
-It clicks whenever you press / release the brake - the same click you get when the car is sitting in park and locks out shifting until you're holding the brake. Except now it does it all the time.

I checked the 'radio' fuse visually when I realized the HU was dead, and it appears to be fine - though I didn't put a meter on it. I checked a bunch (but not all) of the other fuses, and none were gone.

The rest of the car seems to be fine (windows, interior lights, power locks, gauges, etc).

Any ideas? Is there one thing that would cause all this oddness? Or am I seeing the few things that got killed independently during the 24-volt massacre?
 
as far as the head unit goes you might want to tack the actual head unit out and check the fuse in the back of it

for your clock i'm not sure but check your cig lighter to see if it works. if not then make sure and double check all your fuses. because i think those two share the same fuse not 100% sure of the top of my head. so dont quote me

for the mirrors i'd make sure of those other fuses you didnt check.

and as far as the clicking i dont have a clue:shrug:. but be patient it takes a few days for the right person to come and let you know whats wrong. Dont think were are just ignoring you.
 
The cig lighter still works, I know that - my ghetto subwoofer is a big logitech sub from a 5.1 system, and runs off an AC inverter. The irony is that it was the first thing to stop working reliably when the alternator started to go... and now it's the only part of the audio system still functioning! :p

I'll have to figure out how to get the head unit out of there. Without power, I can't get the faceplate off, and I can't exactly remember how I mounted it - it's been a while.

I'll be horribly upset if I lose that head unit. Can't afford another one, and I won't be able to stand getting some POS to replace it with! Better no sound at all... :(
 
EuroTour said:
:nonono:
Click to expand...

Yeah, yeah, I know. Christ, though, it's 100 watts - it's not like I'm running eight 12" subs back there. And it only gets used 10% of the time the car's driven - doesn't seem like that would destroy the alternator. Even if it's drawing 300 watts to generate 100 watts through the sub, it's a pittance compared to what most guys with subs run, if I'm not mistaken?

Regardless, here I am.

I checked the fuses. Mirror fuse is indeed toast, so I'll put another one in. And the interior convenience light fuse was gone, which I hadn't even noticed, but OK. Radio fuse (32) is fine - everything but the convenience light fuse and the mirror fuse were good.

I've gotta try to pull the HU to check the fuse in IT, but since I can't get the faceplate off that may be tricky... Unfortunately I do almost no car stuff, so I'm flying blind with half of this. :(
 
Well, I dunno what the f*ck to do about the HU. I checked the manual; there doesn't appear to be any way to get the faceplate off aside from with it operating. Tried the reset on the HU. Dropped down the glove box, but there's no way to get to the thing from behind. And I can't see any possible way of either getting the faceplate off without destroying it, or getting the whole thing out with the faceplate on (without destroying it).

So for all I know I've got a perfectly good head unit, with a blown fuse, that's completely worthless.
 
The stock HU has two holes on each side, IIRC. A wire hanger with two portions cut into a 'U' shape to shove into the holes on each side of the HU, then it should come out with a little coaxing.

Ford makes a special tool that looks like a freakin' pair of 'U' shaped wires for this purpose.
 
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PeriSoft said:
Radio fuse (32) is fine - everything but the convenience light fuse and the mirror fuse were good.
Click to expand...
does this include F36 (interior fusebox)?. It serves the radio too. F36 is the permenant live... G.
 
you have a Pioneer head unit.. clearly you would have used the mounting sleeve that came with it.. you need the pioneer keys that came in the box with it also..there is a trim ring that would cover these points... fact is your pioneer deck likely got some damage and needs replaced... I know.. i have an Alpine that is dead just from revving the car past redline... the alternator light comes on when that happens and the car loses its mind.. radio clock settings.. has to relearn idle and of course the CEL.. anybody have an idea on that it'd be great but I'm just gonna underdrive it and redo the major wiring on the alternator battery and grounds throughout
 
Thanks... great. I have no idea where I put those things... I got the HU probably 3 years ago, and since then I've gotten a house, run a business, and had a baby... Not conducive to retaining little HU clips. I'll check, though.

So the HU probably isn't fused? That seems crazy to me...
 
PeriSoft said:
So the HU probably isn't fused? That seems crazy to me...
Click to expand...

It should be. The yellow wire on the deck will have a large black box on it (crappy power conditioner) and a small black holder next to that for a fuse (probably 5-10 amps depending on your model)

As for the keys, post a WTB in the classifieds, as someone probably has a set for cheap/free.
 
fuses

fuses

the fuse doesn't blow up when you turn the power out.. but some stuff does.

My alpine is dead now to the Ipod function but plays radio still.

besides not really to sure about the whole power surge thing just saying happened to me could be the issue.. get the keys
 
PeriSoft said:
Thanks... great. I have no idea where I put those things... I got the HU probably 3 years ago, and since then I've gotten a house, run a business, and had a baby... Not conducive to retaining little HU clips. I'll check, though.

So the HU probably isn't fused? That seems crazy to me...
Click to expand...

Perisoft. You can tell by looking closely what the pioneer keys would look like. I believe they are just long perfectly rectangular keys. But its actually uninmportant. Just get ahold of some long precision flathead scredrivers and slide them into the sides where the keys would go. Pry them slightly inward (toward the HU) to release them from the catches on the mounting can. Wiggle gently until the thing slides out. It may take an extra set of hands though. Secondly, you could remove your center console and remove the under tray to the radio/hvac assembly under the dash once the console is removed. That way you can wiggle the HU out while a friend pushes from behind the HU. Once you unplug the HU, it will do a hard reset. It may need just that. Many of the newer HUs use internal fusing. Yours may not have one in line on the yellow wire or on the back of the deck.

I am in agreement with whomever stated that the factory clock/backlight just fried a bulb. That's easy enough to replace even if you need a whole new unit.
 
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