Green93ATX
New Member
Hi all and thanks in advance for your help. Background - I bought the car new and it is all original - most of it never touched. It is all in mint condition, stored winters, never seen snow etc. Recently at 160K I put in new plugs and wires and general service and it ran great for a while.
New symptoms: First of all intermittant, driving along and at the same time the climate control screen flicks off and then resets to 75 auto and he engine cuts out momentairly. At idle ,when I turn on the lights, you hear a growl from under the hood, the engine bogs down and almost stalls and then the lights turn on and the engine stabilizes. Did this with both the old and new alt - feels like the alt is trying to power NYC. While driving, touch the brake pedal and the tranny downshifts to second (at 45mph) and then upshifts. This must be some sort of central electical issue. I drive with the overdrive locked out on local roads but when one of thiese thigns happens, the OD lockout light goes out and it upshifts to OD. When it's acting up, I hear a wine from under the hood - sounds like the alt.
For starters, I checked the voltage from the alternator. It started out over 14V but dropped below 13 over some time running in the garage. It also fluctuated quite a bit and since it was the original alt, I replaced it with a reman Motorcraft. It is giving 13.8 to 13.9 and much more stable than the old one. The battery is 5 years old but checks out at 12.65 volts after sitting all night. The car starts fine and during cranking the voltage drops down to about 10.something but comes right back up. Battery seems strong.
Is this normal? When I connected the negative terminal whild putting the battery back in, there was a fairly large spark when it touched - not the kind of spark you would expect since nothing was turned on, bulb removed from hood and trunk closed.
When it is not acting up, everything works fine. There have never been any electical issues and the electical wiring has never been touched other than changing the alt and putting in new wires.
Here is where I beg for help since I hate electriclal issues! Thanks in advance.
New symptoms: First of all intermittant, driving along and at the same time the climate control screen flicks off and then resets to 75 auto and he engine cuts out momentairly. At idle ,when I turn on the lights, you hear a growl from under the hood, the engine bogs down and almost stalls and then the lights turn on and the engine stabilizes. Did this with both the old and new alt - feels like the alt is trying to power NYC. While driving, touch the brake pedal and the tranny downshifts to second (at 45mph) and then upshifts. This must be some sort of central electical issue. I drive with the overdrive locked out on local roads but when one of thiese thigns happens, the OD lockout light goes out and it upshifts to OD. When it's acting up, I hear a wine from under the hood - sounds like the alt.
For starters, I checked the voltage from the alternator. It started out over 14V but dropped below 13 over some time running in the garage. It also fluctuated quite a bit and since it was the original alt, I replaced it with a reman Motorcraft. It is giving 13.8 to 13.9 and much more stable than the old one. The battery is 5 years old but checks out at 12.65 volts after sitting all night. The car starts fine and during cranking the voltage drops down to about 10.something but comes right back up. Battery seems strong.
Is this normal? When I connected the negative terminal whild putting the battery back in, there was a fairly large spark when it touched - not the kind of spark you would expect since nothing was turned on, bulb removed from hood and trunk closed.
When it is not acting up, everything works fine. There have never been any electical issues and the electical wiring has never been touched other than changing the alt and putting in new wires.
Here is where I beg for help since I hate electriclal issues! Thanks in advance.
