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Elictrical issues. Anyone want to tackle this one??

J

jkazam1

New member
2 months ago, my wifes 03 threw a battery light, car ran till the battery died, and then she was stuck. No problem, probably the alternator, so I changed it. Car ran fine for about 6 weeks, then the same scenerio happened all over again. Codes PO620 and PO560 were set. Suspected a bad alternator, took it back to autozone, they tested it, said it was OK, but gave me a new one to make me happy. Put it on, and now everything electrical is crazy, gauges aren't working, no AC, car revs up and down on its own, trans wont shift out of third, etc, etc. I think its still only running on battery power. Cleaned and checked connections from the battery to the alt to the fuse block. No help. Now I'm getting a "no link" when I hook up the code scanner (Maybe battery too low to read) Anyone with a good idea???
 


Check the battery voltage. If its below 12.6v, its a problem. I got 3 bad alternators from Autozone before I got a good one. All the bad ones had a "remanufactured in Mexico" sticker on it.
 
The 620 was a Generator Fault. Stopped at AutoZone to have them check the battery. It charged for 20 min and a fault showed up. Apparently (1) cell was shorted. Replaced the battery, and seems like it cured all electrical gremlins. The original alternator must have shorted the battery, and it's slowly been going for the past (6) weeks, finally totally crapped out. Much better than other potential alternatives. Thanks for all the help!!!
 
OK. Forget the last post, as the car ran fine up until lunchtime today. Same deal, batt light on, gauges went nuts, car died. Would not turn over, as in battery weak. Left it sit for 5 min, tried again, fired right up without a glitch. A trip to the dealership is justified, I think.......
 


might be a good idea. sounds more like something is shorting the battery, and then the battery is then causing the rest of the problems from there?
 
An intermittent dead short will do that..........kill everything. Then all of a sudden it starts and runs fine. I had a lift gate on my 3/4 ton that had a bad switch grounding out........the short made the truck die like the guy at the RR tracks in "Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind"...:O
If you don't look into it, eventually it'll short solid and you could have a fire........I almost did....
 
Did you get a new alternator when you replaced the battery? Years ago I had bad alternators on a 1970 Mustang. I replaced 2 new ones from parts stores that failed immediately before I too found a shorted battery. I replaced the battery and it ran well for a while but still wouldn't hold a charge. I had to replace the alternator again, then all was well.
 
Make sure the + wire that goes fron the battery down to the starter isn't shorting out on the rad support.
 
Good Luck on this. I just dealt with a very similar issue with my wife's 2006 Jeep Liberty. A bad battery, turned into an failed alternator, which turned into a inconsistent no crank condition (Only when it rained out). It spent 4 weeks at the Jeep dealer as they tried to replicate the condition. It would always work when it was there, even though my wife was stranded 4 times and it would then have to be towed. In the end for us, the fault was tracked down to a bad solder joint in the harness that went to the factory key immobilizer and gauge cluster.

Electrical faults can be a huge PIA to deal with.
 


Well, appointment at the dealership today. Car had to be towed, as it would.nt even give me a couple mile shot. At least it should be there with an active, see it with your own eyes, type of fault. Let's see what I hear today..........
 
Well, for a 96.00 charge, they must have found the problem pretty quickly. Alternator wires were shorted somewhere. in the harness. Probably could have done without the 130.00 alternator, 86.00 battery, and alternator swap. Anyway, this was one rare case where proper troubleshooting methods would have been the way to go from the start. (They probably had a good head start, knowing all the part replacements and history). Anyway, back to trying to solve MY 05's ABS issues.......................
 
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