I'm dead.. boo hoo!

[Justin Bennett 2]

Good day MyST..



So, I was driving down the road the other day and I noticed that my ST was kind of chugging a bit. Looked down and saw that all of my gauges were dark.. Traffic slowed and I shifted into 4th. I tried to give her some gas....and nothing. Just died right there. I pulled off and had AAA tow it to the nearest Ford Dealer. They poked around and said that the alternator was putting out juice, but the battery was dead. It's got the OG battery, over 8yrs. So, I figured sure, it was time for a new battery. They installed and sent me on my way. Well, fast forward to last night, I was driving home from work and Boom! same issue. I pulled into a local tire shop as they were closing. The fella there was nice enough to test it out. Sure enough, battery is dead again.. Bah! It's a new battery.. So, he suggests that the alternator may in fact be shot. Hmm.. The guys at Ford said they tested it. Makes me wonder. Or, it may be someplace else in the charging system. So, I hope to get my independent mechanic to look it over today. Anywho, I just wanted to tell my story. Here it is Friday the 13th.. I never really believed in the bad luck on Fri the 13th.. But maybe, just maybe it's my turn. LOL.

 

[EddieS'04]

I think your dealer failed to do a complete load test. Probably did it with the dead battery. Then determined it was the battery. You were driving on the reserve battery amps.

Should have been rechecked with the fresh battery and all accesories turned on.

 

[Todd Z]

Yeah, You need to allways test the ALT on a FRESH battery... if not you can get false readings...



I bet their is a dead Diode in that alt...



Todd Z

 

[Bill Koonce]

This is probably a good place to remind everybody that you can add water to almost every "maintenance free" car battery. Just pull or pry off the covers that say that you can't service the battery, and you'll find six holes where you can see the levels, and add water if needed. A cell with the proper level will have a concave meniscus (lower in the center). If there is no meniscus (the level is below the bottom of the plastic tube), add distilled water until you see the meniscus. (I keep a spray bottle of distilled water in my "must have" box, to touch up any dirt after a fresh wash, and to use for the battery and coolant.) If you add too much, don't worry; there's not enough room to make much difference unless you let it overflow a lot. (Be sure to clean off the top of the battery first, BTW.



I once bought a car with a totally dead battery that was totally dry. After adding water, the car started right up. I didn't even have to charge the battery!



One thing that you should check that a lot of people ignore -- the grounds. Make sure that you have good, clean and solid ground connections at the grounding point as well as at the battery. There are usually two: one thick wire that's connected to the engine block, to turn the starter motor, and another that's connected to the body. It takes a few minutes to unscrew each, clean off any gunk, spray a shot of contact cleaner and reinstall. At the very least, it's regular maintenance that should be done at least every 100,000 miles; at best it might solve the problem. Worth the effort IMO.

 

[EddieS'04]

Bill,

Thayt is excellent advice. I do the same myself.