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Electrical gremlin - torradan - 01-08-2011
This is really irking the heck out of me. I just can't figure it out.
Got back after 4 months out on the east coast, and go pick up my car from my parent's place. They started it and let it run for about 1/2 hour a week to keep everything happy.
Battery up and died when I went to get it. It wouldn't hold a full charge. It was 5 years old, so I figured that it was time anyways. Got a new battery and everything is good.
NOW.. over the past 3 weeks or so, I get into the car, the clock is at 12:00, CD changer is doing its thing to see if any CDs are in there. This happened a couple of times. Been too busy to really deal with it.. went to North Bay for a few days, and a week in Vancouver, so didn't have a chance to get it looked at.
I cleaned the terminals again, and they're secured in nice and tight.
It keeps doing it. Today when I got to the office, the car just died. Power just shut down completely. Headlights went out, everything. A second or two later, I heard a relay click a couple of times up front somewhere, and I get power. Turn the key, and the clock is at 12:00, CD changer doing it's thing again. Then it starts up like nothing every happened.
I also get no idiot lights on the dash. Nothing for battery/alternator/engine.. nothing.
I also noticed on the way home that the tach bounces when sitting at a red light, just above and below the normal idle in drive. Relearning again maybe?
Now I'm leaving for 3 weeks come Sunday to go back to New Brunswick, and wifey wants to drive it *cringe* because it has heated seats and stuff to keep her ass warm.
Any ideas what I can do to fix this? I'd like to hopefully get it fixed tomorrow so that I don't have to worry about her losing power while she's borrowing it to keep her ass warm.
It seems like the charging system is working, because the battery is fully charged and proper voltages. Just seems like there is some wire somewhere that is loose, or maybe even something is grounding out somehow?
RE: Electrical gremlin - ZTWsquared - 01-08-2011
(01-08-2011, 12:55 AM)torradan Wrote: This is really irking the heck out of me. I just can't figure it out.
Got back after 4 months out on the east coast, and go pick up my car from my parent's place. They started it and let it run for about 1/2 hour a week to keep everything happy.
Battery up and died when I went to get it. It wouldn't hold a full charge. It was 5 years old, so I figured that it was time anyways. Got a new battery and everything is good.
NOW.. over the past 3 weeks or so, I get into the car, the clock is at 12:00, CD changer is doing its thing to see if any CDs are in there. This happened a couple of times. Been too busy to really deal with it.. went to North Bay for a few days, and a week in Vancouver, so didn't have a chance to get it looked at.
I cleaned the terminals again, and they're secured in nice and tight.
It keeps doing it. Today when I got to the office, the car just died. Power just shut down completely. Headlights went out, everything. A second or two later, I heard a relay click a couple of times up front somewhere, and I get power. Turn the key, and the clock is at 12:00, CD changer doing it's thing again. Then it starts up like nothing every happened.
I also get no idiot lights on the dash. Nothing for battery/alternator/engine.. nothing.
I also noticed on the way home that the tach bounces when sitting at a red light, just above and below the normal idle in drive. Relearning again maybe?
Now I'm leaving for 3 weeks come Sunday to go back to New Brunswick, and wifey wants to drive it *cringe* because it has heated seats and stuff to keep her ass warm.
Any ideas what I can do to fix this? I'd like to hopefully get it fixed tomorrow so that I don't have to worry about her losing power while she's borrowing it to keep her ass warm.
It seems like the charging system is working, because the battery is fully charged and proper voltages. Just seems like there is some wire somewhere that is loose, or maybe even something is grounding out somehow?
Have you checked to make sure that all your ground connections are good?
RE: Electrical gremlin - mo_focus - 01-08-2011
the 3 grounds should be good also there are couple of screws on the top of (+) terminal, make sure they are ok as well. I had an issue with mine and it was one of the wires that was feeding the ECU that was loose from the battery side.
RE: Electrical gremlin - torradan - 01-08-2011
Thanks guys! I should have thought of that before.. check one end, but not the other.
Maybe its the connections at the battery, since they were a bit of a POS to remove and had to use a little extra persuasion to get them off. I'll check everything anyways since I'll be out there freezing.
Now I have something to do with my morning.
RE: Electrical gremlin - Frost__2001 - 01-08-2011
I had something similar happen to me, Check your alternator Wiring harness (you'll have to really lean in as it's near the firewall in a tight spot if the placement of the wiring is the same as on the 00-04 model) the wires that plug into the plug, to see if the wires have become exposed to the air, and if you touch it and it comes appart that's the harness it's self that's gone. I've have similar issue happen to me in the yellow focus twice, and the replacement before I bought it.
if the wires come off (de-tach or break off) the ALT light will come on and stay on solid, usually the issues your having now are related to the wire starting to fail. Each time it roughly cost me $75 - $85 to have ford fix it, and these alt harness usually last about 5 years or so..
RE: Electrical gremlin - meford4u - 01-08-2011
I think it's the wiring harness that is frayed. Might be just a small fray in the wire that is happening and when the car is at low idle the ohms to power the battery are not being received, thus the jumping of the tach. Seen this issue before and it is quite common. Betcha it was a squirrel.
RE: Electrical gremlin - Jmountney1 - 01-09-2011
Now I'm leaving for 3 weeks come Sunday to go back to New Brunswick, and wifey wants to drive it *cringe* because it has heated seats and stuff to keep her ass warm
lmao get her heated seats
problem solved lol
RE: Electrical gremlin - xXCMGXx - 01-09-2011
pull out your left inner fenderwell and check the main wiring harness connector that goes through the firewall. This happened to me this week and i found some corrosion on the main power wire for the smart junction box.
RE: Electrical gremlin - torradan - 01-22-2011
Well, thought I had the problem licked. But I'm stuck in NB again (Grand Falls sucks this time of year), and wifey said the car is deader than a doornail when she went to check on it yesterday. She said she hears it click, which doesn' really tell me much. She did say the clock is at 12:00 again though (so the clicks are probably the CD changer shuffling..). So the damned thing gets to sit in the road and get buried in snow until I get back next week sometime and shovel it out and deal with it. Guessing the battery is now toast because its probably completely discharged and sitting out in the cold.
And now she knows why I insist on a garage (one you can work in, not these so-called one car garages that you can fit a yugo in) when we finally buy a house.
Good news is, I guess, is that the company is supposedly keeping me local for at least the month of February, so I can look into it. Downside is, I don't have a reliable car to get me to/from work until I resolve this.
RE: Electrical gremlin - Focus man. Focus. - 01-22-2011
Gallon of Gas, Can of Ether, and a Lighter. Problem Solved!
RE: Electrical gremlin - Mystake - 01-22-2011
get it started!!! a battery that sits out in the cold will freeze over and be useless!!
same principle as leaving your cellphone in the car overnight, if the battery is dead, it ainght coming back to life!