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Ford 500 having battery problems
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elizzyfay
New User
Oct 10, 2016, 3:51 AM
Post #1 of 3
(1277 views)
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Ford 500 having battery problems
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I drive a 2005 or 2006 Ford 500 limited. It is automatic and has about 154,000 miles on it. We have had issues with it in the past, but never anything like this.
1) About 2 months ago, I was driving to the beach and on the way down there, my battery indicator came on and said "check charging system." I was in the middle of the interstate so I couldn't stop. It eventually turned off, but it kept turning on and off. I called my dad and he said to take it to the shop the next morning. In the meantime, we stopped for dinner for about 2 hours, and then drove another hour to our hotel. In that hour, the light did not turn on once. Just to be safe, we took it to the shop the next morning and they ran tests on it and said that everything was fine. We left the shop and didn’t have a problem for the rest of the trip, despite driving over an hour each day.
2) On the way back the beach (4 days after the battery light kept coming on), we had driven about halfway home without problems, and had 2 hours left to go. I was going 65 mph on the highway. Suddenly, all my dashboard lights go off, all the meters go down to 0, then the air conditioning shut off, and all the other lights inside the car shut off as well, but the engine was still on. I pulled quickly to the shoulder and turned the car off and sat for a couple minutes before I tried to start it again, but the engine wouldn't start. It wouldn't even try, I turned the key and nothing happened, not even a slight crank. We got it towed to the closest shop and left it there over night and the next day. They recharged my battery and did all the tests they could think of, including the alternator, but again, everything came back fine, and we still had no explanation.
3) That was at the beginning of august, and I’ve had no problems with my car until about 3 weeks ago. I would the car on, and the AC fan would not stay at the same level. I would have it on high and it would get lower and higher and then turn off and on, but eventually it would stop. I just figured that my blower was going out, but I didn't think it was anything serious.
4) After that happening for a couple of weeks, one night on my way home from the library and I thought the headlights were flickering (they would stay on, but the would dim and brighten constantly). I thought I was just seeing things, because it was 5 AM and I had been studying for about 10 hours, but then I noticed that the lights were flickering at the same rate that my AC was getting higher and lower. I called my dad the next morning and he said to bring it home as soon as I could. This was Friday. There was no way that I could take it home until Monday, so I tried to drive it as little as possible. However, the light and AC problems only got worse, and the AC actually went out completely on Sunday, and the fan would not turn on at all.
5) Around the same time that I noticed that my car felt different to drive. The steering wheel would start shaking sometimes when I braked, and also, at random times I would be accelerating or braking, and the car would randomly rev up and then go back down. Also, at some point I noticed that one of my dashboard lights was on (I learned that this was the airbag light)
6) I took my car to the shop this past Monday, and they replaced the 2 front tires, put a new blow motor in for the fan, put in new automatic steering fluid for my steering wheel, and I got an oil change. I picked up my car (Tuesday) and I was so happy that everything was working again, until the next day (Wednesday) when I turned on the car and the AC fan would not turn on again. It would turn on for a few second, and then turn off for a couple minutes. I tried it on different temperatures, different levels, tried turning it off and on, but nothing worked. The lights were also still flickering.
7) The next day (Thursday), I got back in my car and drove it back home to the shop. They were convinced that nothing was wrong and that I was making it all up. However, they agreed to take a look at it again. They kept it until Saturday (yesterday), and said that I had a faulty alternator and a faulty blow motor. They replaced both, and everything was fine again. My lights stayed at a consistent level, and my AC stayed on whatever level I put it on.
8) So here I am today, at 6:31 am Monday morning. I drove my car back to school Sunday afternoon, and then went to the library. I got in my car to go home around 5 am, and it started fine, but a few seconds after starting, the RPM starting going up, the engine got really loud, then all my dashboard lights turned off, all the meters went down to 0, and everything turned off except my engine (and maybe my radio? Not sure). I tried a few more times to start it, but the same thing kept happening.
As I mentioned, I just got a new alternator, but I’m not sure what’s wrong with it now. I don’t know if it’s a faulty alternator again, or if there’s another issue that I am unaware of. I apologize for the lengthy post, but I am desperate for answers. Thank you in advance.
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Tom Greenleaf
Ultimate Carjunky
/ Moderator
Oct 10, 2016, 5:14 AM
Post #2 of 3
(1268 views)
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Re: Ford 500 having battery problems
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You needed to be lengthy as it doesn't show the real problem when testing or missing the root cause.
Will have to go back of course with history of this. At this point it seems that it just isn't charging while driving or engine on - most other items would be from battery going dead when alternator while running is supposed to do all the electrical work. Power Steering involved while engine is running if it was running fast enough I'm not sure you know nor understand the blower for A/C if no power can't blow not necessarily the blower motor - perhaps a mistake there.
Now it needs to stay in a failure mode while being checked or something tried that seemed to work a repeat of the same possible but gets less likely.
I'll suggest the belt, belt tensioners and the harmonic balancer be checked now. Terms you may not know involved with how tight and in line the belt to run the alternator would be needed right and possible to be intermittent.
Add to this. Alternators do not like to try to charge a VERY low battery nor a battery like gong VERY low. The older it is (they are marked) the harder it is on it to recover not just a continuous recharging by charger or the alternator you can end up with one harming the other back and forth in extremes.
Root cause just hasn't been found. Better if a local shop takes this now and can witness and time to really check this out with all your observations and what happened already so they know,
T
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Discretesignals
Ultimate Carjunky
/ Moderator
Oct 10, 2016, 12:11 PM
Post #3 of 3
(1262 views)
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Re: Ford 500 having battery problems
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The shop needs to do a full system scan of the vehicle's modules on the manufacture side and see if any are storing charging system related codes. There are a lot of issues with the aftermarket Ford computer controlled alternators right now. It's possible they installed a defect. We've learned to install only dealer alternators on those vehicles. That doesn't necessarily mean that alternator is the culprit if there is something else going on, but they should be able to track the fault down if they are persistent and knowledgeable enough.
Since we volunteer our time and knowledge, we ask for you to please follow up when a problem is resolved.
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