Hey guys, I was having issues with my 5.0, last year I took it to ford for a diagnosics, and they found nothing wrong, my check engine comes on if hit the throttle hard, and the charging gauge is low all the time, and last night my battery died, it is a brand new battery from sears, and its a new altenator, the charging gauge was low on the old one and when I put the new one on its reading the same, I know that theres not alot to a charging system but what else should I check, I thought the voltage regulator was on the altenators.
Battery not holding a charge
- Thread starter mustangman33
- Start date
94TURBO5 O
New Member
I use to have serious issues with the same problem. It was my underdrives and using A/C, radio and headlights at night that killed me!!
I put in an upgraded 200 amp and an Optima red and my car has had no problems. Oh I took off the underdrives for the blower set up.
If you decide to replace you alternator again,
www.mralternator.com
The customer service is great and prices are the best I've found.
If you have boom'n stereo, make sure you amp is shutting off when the key is not in. An alternator cannot charge a dead or dying battery well and trying so will cause your new alternator to fail.
Hope this helps.
I put in an upgraded 200 amp and an Optima red and my car has had no problems. Oh I took off the underdrives for the blower set up.
If you decide to replace you alternator again,
www.mralternator.com
The customer service is great and prices are the best I've found.
If you have boom'n stereo, make sure you amp is shutting off when the key is not in. An alternator cannot charge a dead or dying battery well and trying so will cause your new alternator to fail.
Hope this helps.
Car Nut
Founding Member
I took mine to Autozone cause they can check battery, alternator, and other stuff for free. I had a bad battery a while back, but thought it might be the alternator. After getting a test at Autozone, it was obvious which part to failing.
Unfortuantely, electrical problems are not always that clear.
Oh yeah, once I thought I had a dead battery, but it turned out my starter was bad. A friend luckily was nearby and showed me a trick to starting a manual car with a bad starter (basically, once the car is in motion, quickly pop the clutch in first and bam....the car starts up just perfectly. Of course, you'll have to do that until you fix the problem).
I'd check your engine ground connection at the block. If you're a fan of cleaning your engine bay, it is not too unusual to find that the connection with the wire, bolt, washer, and screw are corroded. Clean these with sandpaper and you've got a "like-new" connection. I clean all of these parts once a year, because of the moisture they get.
The voltage regulator is a part of the alternator. I didn't have to adjust mine, I guess, because my replacement alternator was for my specific car and not a generic one.
Just some ideas. Good luck.
Unfortuantely, electrical problems are not always that clear.
Oh yeah, once I thought I had a dead battery, but it turned out my starter was bad. A friend luckily was nearby and showed me a trick to starting a manual car with a bad starter (basically, once the car is in motion, quickly pop the clutch in first and bam....the car starts up just perfectly. Of course, you'll have to do that until you fix the problem).
I'd check your engine ground connection at the block. If you're a fan of cleaning your engine bay, it is not too unusual to find that the connection with the wire, bolt, washer, and screw are corroded. Clean these with sandpaper and you've got a "like-new" connection. I clean all of these parts once a year, because of the moisture they get.
The voltage regulator is a part of the alternator. I didn't have to adjust mine, I guess, because my replacement alternator was for my specific car and not a generic one.
Just some ideas. Good luck.
yup, i have a new alt and battery (within about 4-5 months) and i even unhooked my stereo and something is still draining my battery. if i ever have my amp hooked up (been unhooked for 2 weeks now 
) it will drain sometimes and sometimes not drain. its really weird and i knwo one day ill break it all down and try to find something
) it will drain sometimes and sometimes not drain. its really weird and i knwo one day ill break it all down and try to find somethingI think I found the problem, one of the fuses under the hood was blown, it was a 30 amp fuse, dont know exactly what it is because I cant find the manual, but when I replaced it, it charged for a moment, but then it stopped charging, checked the fuse and it was blown again, what could this be.
Someone locally told me that one of the relays in the CCRM can can go bad and cause a drain on the battery, but it never throws a code. Seems reasonable considering the problems our CCRM's can cause once they start aging. 
have autozone or another autoparts store check your alternator/battery. I bought a new battery and it ended up being bad. I couldn't figure out what was wrong because I figured since it was a new battery that the battery couldn't be the problem. Also check the connections to the alternator.
mustangman33 said:
It's the black box mounted by the radiator that contains relays for the fan, fuel pump, and computer. They often mess up and cause the fan to stop working.
AznStanger3v
Active Member
Car Nut said:
this is soooo off topic, but in the Karate kid part one, thats how daniel-san's mom got her car to start when daniel and his mom picked up his lady for a date
sorry about that guys, i love those moviesyeah, ive gotten pretty good at doing that lately. i recently found out that my ignition switch (well where you put the key in) has to be perfect when i leave the car. it doesnt lock into place and you can move it around and make that chiming noise. i guess that drains my battery cause now i havent had any problems since i know to put it right where it is supposed to be 
Fuse keeps poping, I took off the altenator and took it up to autozone to purchase another but autozone will not take back the part if it was used it for a test, so I decided to do a little more trouble shooting, hooked up a power wire to the alt from the battery, no charge, that was the one thick black and red wire connected to the alt, then I put in a new fuse, unplugged the test wire, fuse still poped, just ran the test wire from the battery to the alt and still popping, then unhooked the other 2 wires to the alt, hooked up the battery, still poping, so the alt is not even hooked up and I am still poping fuses, anymore suggestions.
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