Electrical blinking

[Al W]

94 Taurus SHO with 75K miles. All of a sudden the AC/heat turns completely off and stays off for a while (control panel included) and then turns on. It does this intermittently. The Air bag light does the same. The anti lock brake light occasionally goes on and stays on until the car is turned off. It has been doing this for a while and I thought it was related to a sensor, so I never really thought it was an issue. Any ideas on what might be wrong? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!!

 

[hawkeye18]

Check your battery voltage. All of those modules will do what you describe if you aren't getting at least 11 volts. I think your alternator might be crapping out.

 

[Al W]

Thank you Jason. I will check it and let you know.

 

[Al W]

Jason,

I just checked it and its putting out close to 18 volts. This is to high, right. It should be around 15, correct?

Thanks, Al

 

[jmpSHO]

I believe it should be around 14.8 at idle.

 

[Al W]

I think I can handle it from here. Thank you all for the help!

 

[Pro*banshee]

18 volts! Jesus christ! Stop driving right now! SHUT IT OFF ASAP

 

[artsho]

Alternator is bad......They always fail that way.....High voltage....

 

[hawkeye18]

holy crap, yes, 18 is WAAAY too high. It should be putting out around 13.5-14.5v (although for some reason mine is always 12-13.5v over the span of about four alternators... methinks some wiring is bad). Anyway, yeah, your voltage regulator ate the dust. Either get a new alt or have yours rebuilt.

 

[Al W]

I replaced the alternator this past weekend. All is good so far!!

Thanks, Al

 

[hawkeye18]

Glad to hear. You might want to consider some sort of voltmeter gauge in the future for troubleshooting these things. IMHO they should be required in every vehicle (along with oil pressure and [for ATXs] tranny fluid temp).