Wife Drives Car Until It Explodes

[QUALTHWAR]

Cat, I don’t know why, but for some reason some Fords will corrode battery cables quite a bit. I haven’t really looked into it to figure out why. It might be a nice Google research problem.

Back to the car thing: It’s still not fixed. After I cleaned the cables, it started fine for several days…sooooooooooo, I obviously thought it was fixed. But right before she went to start it tonight, she tells me that the battery light has been coming on. Good time to find that out, right? Anyway, the car didn’t start.

So, in the morning, I need to get it going and go check it out where I used to work. I figure it either has an intermittent charging problem due to a connection (not bloody likely) or the alternator is putting out enough volts but not enough amps. It could be the battery, but they usually develop one bad cell. Her battery showed weak with a hydrometer, but the cells were uniform. I checked it for a drain, but there’s no drain. It’s almost certainly the alternator (or a connection) if the battery light is coming on. I'll have the right equipment tomorrow and figure this thing out.

 

[QUALTHWAR]

Cat, here's somebody with the corrosion problem that's common with some Ford cars:

http://www.modularfords.com/forums/2v-modular-tech/main-battery-cable-corrosion-6613.html

 

[QUALTHWAR]

Another:

I had a '92 Explorer that developed an intermittent slow-cranking problem,
which evolved from intermittent into constant, then became a plain old
no-start. Let's see, this was about 1995, and the vehicle had about 50K on
it.

I traced the problem to battery cable corrosion. The interesting thing is
that the corrosion occurred INSIDE the lug-terminal, where lead is supposed
to meet copper. There was no outward sign whatsoever. I caught it by doing
a careful voltage-drop measurement, which told me the ground cable had high
resistance. So I replaced it (and ALWAYS clean up all the mating parts on
both ends... corrosion is an insidious thing). The truck was back to
normal, so I started cutting up the old cable looking for the bad spot.
Found it, as I said above, underneath the lead. I made a section cut
straight through the lug-terminal and you could see the shiny lead, then a
blue layer of corrosion, then the shiny copper inside. Frankly, it's just
amazing that (a) corrosion would grow in there and (b) that tiny layer was
enough to hold back several hundred amps.

http://www.ford-trucks.com/archives/80-96-list/V2000.I133.html

 

[QUALTHWAR]

More...

http://www.mrreman.com/downloadsgateway/FORD/MRTSB-FORD-005.htm

Another: http://www.amalah.com/amalah/2004/01/me_vs_the_unive.html
At this moment Jason remembers that Ford sent us Recall Notice 2383749857034593-493-9 a couple weeks ago, and that it had something to do with a battery cable. And then I notice that a nylon strappy thing, apparently meant to hold the battery in, has shifted over to one side and has been completely cooked away by the corroded cable. Mmmmmmm, tasty.

 

[QUALTHWAR]

LOL, Saturday my wife drove her van... one day after I had, and I like hardly evar drive it okay. And the check engine light was on and the temp gage was blinking.
She naturally blamed me for fuxxoring her ride.
So I test drove it with her riding shotgun... light on for a few minutes, temp gage pegged, then check engine light off, temp normal, back-n-forth.
Next morning I changed the thermostat (140,000 miles).
Guess what, fixxored.
Guess next time i won't piss in the radiator, or find a bush or something

I think my wife drove my car home in second gear or something. The computer code has never come back with me driving it. The code was a lean O2 sensor. She was having trouble figuring out if it was in drive or second the other day, and i'm wondering if she was driving home with the tach hitting 4 grand.

 

[QUALTHWAR]

Maybe it’s fixed now. Before I took it to the shop, I was checking out the relay on the fender well and noticed the big wire going to the starter was on the same post as the positive battery cable. The only wire on the other side of the relay was a smaller wire. I see what they’ve done now. Ford is using 2 relays for the starter. They have the one that’s normally on the fender well, but they have a second one built onto the starter like a GM. Why they need 2, who knows? That’s Ford for ya.

Anyway, the car didn’t start so I wiggled that little wire on the starter solenoid where it connected to the starter and it started right up. However, that doesn’t explain why the battery light has been coming on. My wife said it was coming on while she was driving down the road, but I’m wondering if it’s coming on when she’s sitting at a light and the idle is real low.

I drove it to the shop and checked and the alt is putting out 60-65 amps under a load, a good 14 volts, and the starter draw was good at 90-95 amps. I put a new end on the solenoid wire so it’s tight and it’s been starting fine. I’m still not convinced that the car is 100%. I’m wondering if she’s having an intermittent charging problem on top of that bad connection on the starter solenoid. I'll just have to see if the battery light comes back on.

 

[Rukee]

Got a Ford Taurus here and the battery light will come on any time your over three quarters throttle. It`s weird, when the motor tacks out the light comes on, can`t find anything thing wrong with it, output is fine otherwise.

 

[QUALTHWAR]

hmm, i wonder if the bushing are worn out on the alt and the shaft centers and uncenters itself. Then the brushes are close to the brush holders and when it's not centered, the brushes aren't making good enough contact to charge.

At the moment, that's the only thing that makes sense since it seems like a mechanical problem associated with the speed. The only thing that fits that scenerio is a bad alt.

 

[Rukee]

I don`t know if an alternator will fix it or not, I was thinking it may be normal. Most of the voltage regulators are built into the ECM`s, just like the ECM will shut off the A/C compressor at high speeds when you kick it down, it seems to keep the alternator from overcharging (and volt spiking the computer) at the same high speeds. The one in our car has been doing it for about three years now, if it was worn brushes, I would have expected them to expire by now.

 

[QUALTHWAR]

It’s very possible that the ecm is cutting out the alt. The alt does put a load on the engine so if you step down to pass somebody, you’d want as much power as possible. The ecm might look for a signal from the tps. Like maybe when the tps hits 4 volts, it cuts out the alt.