[GFXjamie]

so i left for home from florida yesterday around 9am, everything was fine until i hit north kentucky and thought its time for more redbull, a pack of smokes and top up on gas. got gas, got my stuff etc. and started driving. GPS power wasnt working, WTF??? well as soon as i got onto the highway, BAM there it was, cool. i get through cincinatti and heading into dayton ohio, there it goes again, about 2 minutes later, my stereo shuts off and turns back on. then my lights start to dim a bit. so i dim all interior lighting, remove stereo faceplate, unplug wideband, unplug GPS and turn off fogs, headlights gradually dim more and more.

finally met an exit and pulled off. checked all my wiring under the hood, everything checks out, no loose battery terminals, no shorts in my old stereo wiring, nothing that was apparent with a flashlight at 11pm.

decided to wait until daylight to drive the rest of the way (another like 7 hours or less) because i will not need lights so hopefully alternator puts out enough to keep car going. well i get to a parking spot and as i am parking it dies.

well time to try road side assistance.... to bad ford doesnt give you a number to call from the states as their canadian number only works up there. had to sit on the phone with my dad at home, tell him what to tell them, have them tell me that 88393km is out of warranty :blink:

needless to say, dad called back without me on the phone, i assume reammed them a new a$$hole and next thing you know i got a call telling me a tow truck would arrive in 45 minutes.

12:50 rolls around and a flat bed shows up, we scrape my front and rear bumpers getting on the truck, and do the same getting it off. i now have a canadian car sitting at an american dealership which doesnt open til monday. currently stuck stranded in a holiday inn that cost me like 100$ for one night.

they had better cover this under warranty or im pretty well f***ed to put it lightly. i have another 200$ to my name after this vacation.

how lucky am i???

stoopid focus

[konafocuswrc]

hmm..what did you do before going to the states??
sorry to hear about all those but i m pretty sure ford dealer will blame on all your aftermarket stuff..


mine is 2000, i have driven few times from san francisco to los angeles and to vancouver..then all the way from vancouver to toronto without any issue..
i m on my original alternator and have amps running 900 rms watts total..

if u r on original battery, change it..or your ground might corroded..
if u have multimeter handy, checking current draw will solve your problem..

[GFXjamie]

battery was fine as are grounds, made sure to check them first. no underdrive pulleys are on the car, nor is there a big stereo. just a deck and some interior lighting which hasnt been on for weeks.

battery is original, but it is just over 2 years old. should last longer then that i would expect.

not sure what aftermarket stuff would cause alternator failure, unless i have UDP which i currently dont :s

also i will check for draw when dad gets here, he has multimeter, hes coming to get me while car stays here. gotta work tomorrow morning!!

[hardk0re]

The alternator is probably hosed. IIRC its really close to the exhaust on the duratec, so it can heat up easily on long trips. Do you have an amp in your car with a subwoofer?

[ZTWsquared]

hardk0re,Mar 21 2010, 04:02 PM Wrote:The alternator is probably hosed.  IIRC its really close to the exhaust on the duratec, so it can heat up easily on long trips.  Do you have an amp in your car with a subwoofer?
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^^ true ... on the 2008-9 Fusion 2.3 there's a special duct that crosses over the entire engine specifically to route cooler air to the alternator - and they moved it entirely starting 2010. Pretty sure the Focus D20 never had that.

Makes you wonder if there was any kind of TSB or other service action for Duratec alternators.

[Oscar The Grouch]

All you have to do is fab up a little heat shield. Twas what I had to do when installing the Turbo.

Jamie, you'll probably have to do this too when you do yours.

[castone]

Jamie if you have tools theres alternators for like $50 in that area in scrap yards.

Do a quick search on the zip code your in and check this site
http://www.car-part.com

[Focus man. Focus.]

castone,Mar 21 2010, 06:04 PM Wrote:Jamie if you have tools theres alternators for like $50 in that area in scrap yards.

Do a quick search on the zip code your in and check this site
http://www.car-part.com
[right][snapback]303643[/snapback][/right]

That is amazing info. That is what FC is all about, Members helping Members. Kudos!!!! ;)

[GFXjamie]

made it home keeping rpm high and using my dads second f250 battery. im going to rig up a heat shield and a duct of some sort after this. what a pita.... had to take battery tray out to fit the larger battery and strapped it to my stress bar. thank god for my dad, hes a saviour. i was screwed...

not to mention alternators are not covered under powertrain warranty :S didnt list it in warranty manual so... ya screw leaing it tot hem to put in a 400$ part plus labour

[Scorcher000]

Take the Tranny mount out and flex the engine to the front untill she drops.
My alternator went on me and in the labour book it shows the Mech has to remove the pass driveshaft to get the alternator out.

Alternators are welllllllll know in the Mech shops I visit to fail with in 150,000KM. Mine was around 70,000KM.

All warranty is over at 60,000KM <_<

Good luck.
FYI My rebuilt 200AMP wasn't cheap, and technically they can't be rebuilt.
New is better with 1 year warranty. If you get a s*** price let me know and I can see what my Buddy wants for one.

[konafocuswrc]

so it was alternator?
ouch..ford should take that as a recall on duratec without heatshield around alternator..

[GFXjamie]

ya it is definately the alternator, as i said b4, took one of my dads truck batteries and used it for the drive home, it was 100% when it went in my car, and with the car at idle for 5 minutes it already was making battery light come on. I couldnt let it idle while driving for more then a few minutes without revving the crap outta it the whole way back. as you can guess, crossing the border was hard.... had to basically bounce my foot on the throttle for 20 minutes while in line...

good thing i only needed one gas top in the whole 650 ish km finishing leg.

on a good note, some local wreckers have alternators for around 70-90$ depending on wreckers so ill let the car sit for a bit, sell some more parts, wait for FSW stage 2 and then i will do everything at once. with header off im guessing alternator will be slightly easier to tackle.

[GFXjamie]

and one final point, i made it home literally 20 minutes before night fall, couldnt have any lights on, no stereo, unpluged wideband, no fan, just motor and gauges. hell i didnt even use my turn signal or brake half the time to conserve power! LOL

what a trip...

[NikiterZTS]

hmmm not turn signals eh
tsk tsk tsk Jamie

[GFXjamie]

well i had my dad following behind me so changing lanes wasnt a big deal really, only used em half the time

[paolo]

hmm, I had an alternator go on me 2 yrs ago, It got to the point where the electronics power would dim real bad, then the funnyest thing happened,ALL the car's electronics died, but the motor was still kickin, I was driving for 5 mins in the middle of the winter 2 yrs ago, with no power steering, no lights, break pressure was also not that great, it was starting to get rush hour, and I was able to park the car in a busy mall parking lot safely nose out.

left the car, my friend came with his battery pack, boosted it for a bit, then was able to drive it home which would have been a 10 min drive, took me 25 mins, had to rev the sh!t out of it the entire way, but made it, paid about $100 for a new alternator from my buddy, and she was good as new.

[ZTWsquared]

GFXjamie,Mar 22 2010, 02:24 PM Wrote:on a good note, some local wreckers have alternators for around 70-90$ depending on wreckers so ill let the car sit for a bit, sell some more parts, wait for FSW stage 2 and then i will do everything at once. with header off im guessing alternator will be slightly easier to tackle.
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I guess the only concern I would have about a used one would be how much life left in it - probably suffering from the same heat exhaustion as yours to some degree.

[GFXjamie]

gunna look for one with hopefully lower km. plus i had a rather large stereo prior to this so.... that didnt help. also had my battery dead on a few occasions aswell. for 85$ to get er going is better then 400 for new. i can get 4 alternators for the price plus gas to go get em!

[ZX3_2NV]

GFXjamie,Mar 21 2010, 07:38 PM Wrote:made it home keeping rpm high and using my dads second f250 battery. im going to rig up a heat shield and a duct of some sort after this. what a pita.... had to take battery tray out to fit the larger battery and strapped it to my stress bar. thank god for my dad, hes a saviour. i was screwed...

not to mention alternators are not covered under powertrain warranty :S didnt list it in warranty manual so... ya screw leaing it tot hem to put in a 400$ part plus labour
[right][snapback]303645[/snapback][/right]

Using an incorrect battery can be dangerous I threw a festiva battery into my focus one weekend in early spring because I couln't wait to get the car on the road yaa driving back on the highway car shut down on me i made it over to the shoulder and I see smoke. Battery had shifted and was touching another wire and sparked a little fire. I grabbed the handle on the battery thank god for that handle and used all my force to yank it out and I patted down the rest and the fire was out. Only one wire damged and my old coil pack melted a bit. But yaa be very carefull I won't be doing that again.

[shadowzx3]

Sorry to hear about the journey bud! Oh well things happen, the good thing was nothing major happened like something with the engine/tranny. Then you would've been screwed big time.

How badly did your bumpers get scraped? I've seen that drop in person so I'm not surprised it did scrape though :P