alright, havent been on here in a long time but havin some troubles lately. at lower rpms my stang doesnt have the power it used too...almost seems like its leaning out or getting too rich type of thing but i cant smell a diff so i dont think its rich. f/p is at 40 with vac off. also lately ive been having a problem with my battery not lookin like its being recharged. i have the red top (cant think of the brand but you know what one) and an alternator thats not older than 2 years. charging volts vary from 12.6-13.2 while driving and rpms dont affect it. my oil pressure voltage or whatever seems to be higher than normal also. tryin not to drive it much just starting up here and there to see if the battery is dead plus the weather kinda sucks too but any ideas?
hesitation and low charging
- Thread starter HazMat404
- Start date
bill302
Active Member
how often do you drive car. it may be fuel contamination,moisture,(low octane)old gas ect... run sea foam system cleaner threw intake and fuel tank and its normal to run higher oil pressures in colder weather O.K. as lone as its in normal range and also when was last tune up, fuel filter change and air cleaner.
bill302
Active Member
oh ya have total electrical system checked at local auto parts store good thing to do every so often and its free.if you think this is the problem.
Brad, does the system discharge at hot idle with a load? Assuming the charging system is acting up most at hot idle with a load (night time, perhaps the fan is on, lights, fogs, HVAC fan, etc), what is your idle setting at that point and what is your voltage reading at the battery (taken at the battery to omit a voltage drop to the interior gauges)?
An engine management burp could be reducing your hot idle setting a little bit, which can make the difference in the charging system performance.
Or I made a lot of assumptions I should not have and none of this is plausable.
Good luck.
An engine management burp could be reducing your hot idle setting a little bit, which can make the difference in the charging system performance.
Or I made a lot of assumptions I should not have and none of this is plausable.
Good luck.
well the car does it at cold and hot idle. during the winters i run my idle at about 950 or so because my car has never liked cold weather and has always run pretty bad (nothing like it is now) when its cold cold out til it warms up. new spark plugs, wires, cap/rotor this past summer. i use my radar detector to see the volts going through my system when driving but i will test the battery itself tomorrow. i will probably go ahead and change the fuel filter and clean the maf and air filter also. might as well get the simple stuff outta the way first.
i will take it to autozone tomorrow to see if they can do a check on it. it does this with every accessory off and my amp/sub fuse taken out and the same with all of it blaring at full blast. something is up and im wondering if that is taking away from my spark and that why the hesitation is coming along with the charging problem.
this car has been my daily driver for about 6 years now and longest it sits is about 3 days. i was thinking bad gas with the chugging (i run 91 octane cause it starts to ping a bit on 89 and lower) but i filled it up again and ntohing different and that wouldnt have solved the voltage issue either. the red top battery has served me very very well and can last a dead alt for a long time (sadly had to test it on an old red top battery for an hour ride with a dead alt). hopefully someone can give me an idea that im not thinking of or hopefully the things i do tomorrow will give me an idea also. ty much
i will take it to autozone tomorrow to see if they can do a check on it. it does this with every accessory off and my amp/sub fuse taken out and the same with all of it blaring at full blast. something is up and im wondering if that is taking away from my spark and that why the hesitation is coming along with the charging problem.
this car has been my daily driver for about 6 years now and longest it sits is about 3 days. i was thinking bad gas with the chugging (i run 91 octane cause it starts to ping a bit on 89 and lower) but i filled it up again and ntohing different and that wouldnt have solved the voltage issue either. the red top battery has served me very very well and can last a dead alt for a long time (sadly had to test it on an old red top battery for an hour ride with a dead alt). hopefully someone can give me an idea that im not thinking of or hopefully the things i do tomorrow will give me an idea also. ty much
I cant say anything about the engine performance, but if you are not seeing more than 13.2 volts at the battery with no load and decent RPMs (say 2K+), that aint right. It seems to me that Optima batteries hold about 2.2 volts/cell (someone correct if I am wrong), so that equates to ~13.2 volts static.
I would maybe take a peak at your alternator wiring too Brad. I just ordered a new reg plug because my old stuff was all vulcanized. I had already replaced the charge cable with a 4 AWG cable I made, because I was getting a 400 mV drop from the alt to the distribution block bolt.
I would also note that the distribution block bolt is kinda famous for corroding (John and Chris Eades have both had issues lately with it) so it is worth checking.
Random thoughts. Once you know the charging system is up to par, it might be easier to figure out the performance issue (and pull codes if you havent, before the battery is disco'd).
Good luck.
I would maybe take a peak at your alternator wiring too Brad. I just ordered a new reg plug because my old stuff was all vulcanized. I had already replaced the charge cable with a 4 AWG cable I made, because I was getting a 400 mV drop from the alt to the distribution block bolt.
I would also note that the distribution block bolt is kinda famous for corroding (John and Chris Eades have both had issues lately with it) so it is worth checking.
Random thoughts. Once you know the charging system is up to par, it might be easier to figure out the performance issue (and pull codes if you havent, before the battery is disco'd).
Good luck.
sounds good...ill do a full check on corrosion with anything that is touching the alt. i know about 3-4 years back the white/pearl plug that goes into the back of the alt fried on me and i had to replace. im hoping the engine issue has to do with lack of juice but we will see once i figure that out. my pops is an electrician so we can see if anything withing the system seems to be shorted or losing power within the line.
i did try to pull codes and there were no codes shown. it was just kinda outta the blue one day and been constant ever since. havent worked on my car in a long long time but its time to get my hands dirty again . ill report back tomorrow and keep giving ideas if you think of anything. thanx a ton for the help so far
i did try to pull codes and there were no codes shown. it was just kinda outta the blue one day and been constant ever since. havent worked on my car in a long long time but its time to get my hands dirty again
. ill report back tomorrow and keep giving ideas if you think of anything. thanx a ton for the help so far
