1997 Ford Mustang - Completly Dead! No power getting into the car! Battery is fine

[FredT]

Hey Yall,

I have a problem with one of my cars. My mustang went completly dead today. It was working fine. I pulled into the garage, turned it off, and walked away. I cam back 20 min later and tried to start and it didn't work. Nothing. Gave the noise like a dead batt would. So I hooked up my batt charger to it (yes, i hooked it up right). Needle went to 6, and came down to 2. So, Battery is charged.

The car is now completly dead. No power to lights, horn, anything!

Any ideas?

-Fred T

 

[Silentst2000]

Did you try cleaning the terminals and the wires connecting to the terminals?

 

[Jamez]

That has happened to me (on another vehicle) where the positive terminal got so corroded it ate part of the connector. Cleaned both of em up and got a new one for positive and all was well. A friend of mine had a '98 Stang where one of the connectors was loose on the terminal and it would kinda disconnect itself sometimes. Other than that I dunno.

 

[n00b]

it could be your alternator

 

[FredT]

Hmm...Battery terminal is fine. I hooked up an LED to some exposed wiring and in turned on fine.

 

[77sleeper]

+ cable is a gonner

to test this hypothesis, connect the red lead of a jumper cable to your starter solenoid, and the other red lead to the positive terminal of your batt.

the car should act normally

 

[marvinmycat]

I once came back to my car after parking it at work, and everything seemed to have been reset like the battery was pulled or something. Every preset station on the stock radio was reset, including the settings. This only happened once in the five years I've owned it. Does anyone think this could be related?

If thet test above works, I would start looking for a short in battery cables.

 

[ZekeStang]

Fred let us know how you resolve it.

 

[HyYoSilver]

Fred, you'll first have to jack it up enough to get underneath. Then loosen the negative battery cable where it connects to a starter bolt. Clean the cable end and bolt with a wire brush, and then reinstall the cable.

This seems to be a problem area with the V-6 Mustangs for some reason......

 

[77sleeper]

and?