New alternator overcharging still!?!?!

[csvt2200]

So my car died the other day. I was driving and all of a sudden I had no power, rpms were 0, car would hardly go. No battery light came on, but my gauges acted like the car was off. Costed into a parking lot and turned it off as it was barely running now. Tried to start it back up and it acted like the battery was dead so I immediately think alternator. Took the battery to get check and charged up and put it back in the car and it started up fine. Went back to O'Reillys and got the aternator checked on their hald held deal, said it was fine. Tried to drive home, the same thing happened. Tested the Voltage on the battery and it was over 14V with the car off. With the car on it was over 17V. Put a new alternator in today and checked it and this was the reading still reading over 17V with the car running!!! WTF?!

 

[gmorrell]

Contour? Check F5 in the fuse box by the battery and F30 in the fuse box under the dash, these are two that will disturb the operation of the voltage regulator on the alternator. F30 is also the instrument cluster fuse.

You will also want to check the Yellow/White wire on the back of the alternator (sometimes marked A) and make sure it's getting back to the Battery + terminal, this is the voltage sense wire for the voltage regulator and if it's not connected, the alternator runs without feedback. Sometimes Yellow/White gets tagged right to the alternator output stud, other times it runs back to the battery + terminal.

That degree of over-charging will kill your battery pretty quickly, make sure you pop the caps and check the electrolyte level, as over-charging boils off the electrolyte.

Edit: I suppose one upside is this makes the Contour's crappy headlights brighter.

 

[csvt2200]

Replaced the battery and it's fine now. Guess the old battery got fired from overcharging.