hey guys, so I was driving my car last night and i noticed the amp light turned on. I never had the light go on before so I was a little suprised. I park the car then I start it again. everything is fine. so i shut it off, go for a short drive, park it again. then i go to start it after that and it turns over slow then clicks like a dead battery. me and my friends help push start it and then the amp light is off and my volts read 14. what is wrong here? maybe a loose connection somewhere or a bad alternator or battery? thanks in advance
bad alternator? or battery?
- Thread starter 88foxbody
- Start date
Had that issue on my 06 gt. I first checked the battery. I changed the battery to the original motorcraft. Original owner changed it. I was having the same issue, but the system check kept saying charging system good. A code was being thrown for cam sensors I think. I took out the alternator and took it to Autozone. The alternator would not fit in their tester. So I took it home. But as I was leaving autozone with the heavy sucker in my hand I started looking at the diodes right past the casing and noticed that the solder on the connections looked burnt. Had my dad take a magnifier to it and realized the contacts were shot. He scraped some of the bad solder away and put new solder on the contacts. He did not take off the casing. Its almost impossible, my dad has amazing steady hands. Anyway threw it back in and it started up and held strong. Codes cleared automatically.
I was quite happy. It worked for about a month and went out on me. My dad who has alldata access said it was released that their was poor soldering on the assembly line when making some of the alternators. bought a new alternator and its been good for the past 2 years.
I was quite happy. It worked for about a month and went out on me. My dad who has alldata access said it was released that their was poor soldering on the assembly line when making some of the alternators. bought a new alternator and its been good for the past 2 years.
Just a heads up if you do determine if the alt is no good. Get a 92-95 style alternator. It will bolt righ up in place of your original. Its called a 3g alt upgrade. The 94-95 style is 130amp and is cheaper then the 75a and 90a available at Auto Zone. You will have to upgrade the charging wire from the alternator to the solenoid on the fender but its very easy and cheap. and you will have plenty enough voltage to supply a stereo and all your electronic loads.... If you enter the NYM discount you get the whole shit and shabootle for like $150! Here is the kicker with a 3g alt upgrade..... Here is a proble i ran into to..... You need a FULLY charged battery in the car when you go to start the car after you do the upgrade. I have a brand new Optima red top battery in the car. I had a coil go bad so i killed the battery a bit trying to determine why the car would not start. Battery would still crank the car over but the battery was pretty drained... When i put a good coil on the car and got it running, the charging wire was getting so hot it started to melt. I went thru all the wiring ten times and all was normal. I couldnt figure out for the life of me why this wire was getting so dam hot so i took my old alt out wich was already 3g and had it tested. It was putting out 11.5 to 12.5 volts wich we determined that it was starting to stb. I bought a new 130a alt figuring that this was the cure all. JUst so happened that in the instructions for the new alt is said in big letters USE FULLY CHARGED BATTERY ONLY or the alternator will overheat! Finally i knew why the dam wire was getting so hot. I charged the battery fully and the problem was gone! The whole time the alt was trying to charge the battery.... I never knew this but an alternator is not meant to CHARGE a battery. Go figure..... HOpe this helps you out in your journey! LOL