[Rob]

So I'm sitting in the McDonald's drive thru yesterday when my car starts to run like siht, all of a sudden my RPM's drop and my gauge needles all bottom out and the airbag light comes on then the car stalls. I try to re-start it but all I get is a clicking sound wich tells me that the battery is dead. I get my car to a parking spot and manage to re-start it only to have the same thing happen again.
I looked at the little green window on top of the battery which has now turned red so I replaced the battery. I managed to drive the 5km home with this new battery without a problem. I tried the car roughly 6 hours later and it seems that all the lights are dimming while it runs.

-Does this sound like an alternator problem or has anyone had this problem?
-Are there any suprises when taking the alternator out
-Does anyone have a balpark fig. on what either a new or refurbished alternator would cost

P.S. The battery termanals are tight but I have not followed the wires back to the alternator, I will do this tonight.

Thanks for your help

[Raine]

Silly question but do you have any audio equipment that is not properly grounded/you haven't checked for proper grounding? I had that problem when I first installed my amp after a couple of weeks. Gave me a hard time till I realized what it was. Made the car do that ticking thing... started up once but not again after. Had to get it jumped to get it home...

[Rob]

Quote:Silly question but do you have any audio equipment that is not properly grounded

I don't know much about audio but I do have a 300w (I think) amp pushing a 10" fosgate sub. I have had this set up for about a year and a half no problems. If it makes any difference which I highly doubt, my sub did vibrate out of the box last week and the wires to the sub did touch.

Tonight I'm going to ckeck all the the grounds and hopefully thats the problem.

Thanks

[Rob]

Well, I checked my grounds as best I could and disconected my amp to rule that out tonight, but no luck, the problem is still there. So out came the alternator (one huge pain in the ass) and 2hrs later.

When I finally got it out I took a look at the blades inside and there is a brass/coppery wear spot on each blade and it sounds like something is rubbing(might be the bearings making the noise).

I took it down to Crappy tire to get it checked but they told me that they don't have the harness for it so they couldent test it. You think they would have one, its not like the Focus is a rare car, there all over the place.

After I got back from CT I got my multimeter out and set to Ohms, placed my red lead on the terminal and my black lead on the body and got a reading of 10ohms or somthing. If I'm correct I should get infinite resistance (please correct me if I'm wrong)

Now I guess I'll have to find a place that tests alternators because I dont want to shell out a whole buncha money for nothing.

Rob

P.S. If anyone knows a good way to get the alternator in and out could you please let me know.

Thanks

[xappie]

I can't really help you alot but I can offer this:

If the alternator is working, you should get a charge between 13.5V to 14.6V across the battery terminals when the car is running (after the car warms up and the alternator kicks in.) If you aren't getting this charge, the battery light on the dash will come on. This is how I tested mine on the weekend when my battery light came on and I took it down to Crappy Tire and they put in a new one. Note to self: if you short out the alternator with wrench it is not covered by warranty. :(

To take the alternator out: (from my Haynes manual)
- Disconnect the battery!
- Remove the retaining bolt from the coolant overflow tank and move the tank to the side
- Remove the drivebelt
- lift the power steering resevoir from its bracket and move to one side
- uscrew the bolt from the wiring loom bracket and move the wiring to one side
- remove the ground cable and optionally CAREFULLY bend down the bracket that the ground (engine to chasis?) is attached to to get it out of the way
- remove the two bolts from the canister purge valve and move to one side
- remove the plastic cover, unscrew the nut, and disconnect the wiring from the back of the alt.
- uncsrew and remove the alt. mounting bolt nearest the engine
- unscrew the other bolt until it has fully disengaged from the bracket (it is not possible to remove the bolt from the alt. at this stage)
- carefully lift the alternator from the engine, turning it with the pulley facing upwards - take care not to damage the surrounding components on removal as there is little room to maneuver the alt.

hope that helps!

[Rob]

Thanks for your help Xappie. The discription you posted was the exact way I had to do it, but I do have one note:

Quote:remove the ground cable and optionally CAREFULLY bend down the bracket that the ground (engine to chasis?) is attached to to get it out of the way

.......This is not an option, its a must. Even with this bent it was like getting the square peg in the circle hole.

I was wondering what CT you went to because I can't find one that can test a Focus alternator. Then again they probally just plugged into your car and read the code right?

Just out of curiousity what did in cost to have them Change your alternator?

[xappie]

Rob,Jun 15 2004, 09:11 AM Wrote:Thanks for your help Xappie. The discription you posted was the exact way I had to do it, but I do have one note:

Quote:remove the ground cable and optionally CAREFULLY bend down the bracket that the ground (engine to chasis?) is attached to to get it out of the way

.......This is not an option, its a must. Even with this bent it was like getting the square peg in the circle hole.

I was wondering what CT you went to because I can't find one that can test a Focus alternator. Then again they probally just plugged into your car and read the code right?

Just out of curiousity what did in cost to have them Change your alternator?

I went to the CT in the Heartland Centre at Mavis/Britania in Mississauga - it's really close to where I live.

They didn't test the alternator at all, although they offered to, but I just had them replace it because I was pretty sure it was dead (no charge across the battery terminals with my multimeter - just the 12V from the battery.)

I shorted out the thing with a wrench (left a melted hole in the wrench!!) and a bunch of the wiring too. Quite a mess... They charged me $316 for the alternator, a rebuilt Bosche, after a $45 credit for the core of my old alternator. They had to replace all that wiring, and to do so they had to take off the flex pipe etc etc so the final bill was just over $600. :(

[Rob]

Well I got a new alternator in last night ($75 from a wrecker - 18000kms) and everthing seems to be running well. Just a note for anyone who is going to replace an alternator in the future, the alternator mounting points where the bolt threads into have to be compressed before you can fit in back on the bracket (took me awhile to figure this out).

Thanks for your help

Rob