will this car ever be reliable? problems!

ronstang94 · Mar 28, 2008

I drive my dads ranger more than my own car. After the last set of problems were fixed, I drove the car for four days before it broke again. Problem after problem and so on.

at first the voltage dropped on the gauge and battery light came on, the voltage stayed on the O of NORMAL on the gauge, but very very slowly started dropping. It stumbled at around 3500 rpm at WOT, then almost died at a stop. Then the tach stopped working, just stuck on zero. I pulled in to my driveway and there was an odd bad smell and I swear something in the car beeped twice. I shut it off, looked for a sorce of the bad smell under the car and the hood, and found nothing. tried to start it again but it didnt have enough juice to start, but enough to roll the windows up.

Im getting so tired of this car.

what do you think happened?

Thanks

BlownFiveLiter · Mar 28, 2008

Something in the alternator, or fusible link? Time to get friendly with your multimeter and see if you find any power cables with a good amount of resistance.

Pokageek · Mar 28, 2008

These cars are very reliable from the factory. Not that you want to hear that right now. However it is a 14 year old car. The wires, harnesses, parts are going to start to fail from heat, age and the elements. These cars are at the point when much of this needs restoration for the vehicle to continue to be expected to be reliable.

RIO5.0 · Mar 28, 2008

Sounds like your alt took a dump....Take it off and have it checked...Parts stores will do it for free...Don't wanna buy one and get stiffed returning it as it's an electrical item...Some places frown on taking em back. A salvage yard might be a good choice??

Trouble shooting can be a drag... Good luck... as mentioned these cars are pretty damn reliable..

HISSIN50 · Mar 29, 2008

The smell could have been the belt (remove the belt and see if your alt seized).

The beeping could have been the SRS.

Good luck with the diagnostics.

95strokerPSU · Mar 29, 2008

HISSIN50 said:
The smell could have been the belt (remove the belt and see if your alt seized).

The beeping could have been the ABS.

Good luck with the diagnostics.

Why would the ABS module beep? Mine does it occasionally.

HISSIN50 · Mar 29, 2008

95strokerPSU said:
Why would the ABS module beep? Mine does it occasionally.

The module can beep because it's voltage source is low.

On some cars (4th Gen Camaros come to mind, though I don't think it applies to our Mustangs), the non-critical systems can shut down as the battery craps out. The ABS is one of them.

ronstang94 · Mar 29, 2008

Thanks for all of the replies.

so that beep that i heard is real? im not going crazy? Because I did not think that there was any auditory warnings in our cars for low voltage or anything.

why did the tach stop working? is that a normal thing to happen when there is a voltage problem?

with the tach going out, engine stumbling and almost dying, bad smell and beeping i got worried that the computer got fried. Any chance of that being the prob?

Thanks again

Juggalo95 · Mar 30, 2008

Id say get out the multimeter and go a testing...probably just your alt taking a dump on ya. As said these cars are not new anymore so stuff is gonna happen.

HISSIN50 · Mar 30, 2008

The EEC frying is very very unlikely. It uses heat-sink technology.
The Air bag is capable of beeping if the idiot light is malfunctioning (the monitor is behind the radio IIRC).

Note: I said ABS before. I mispoke and meant to say SRS initially. ABS probably sounded strange, hence Dave asking. My bad.

fawcett · Mar 30, 2008

For a while my tach was jumping around at start up. I ended up braking down in the middle of the worst place at the worst time. After removing a lot of things and repairing them it turned out to be my coil. I'm not saying that this is your problem, its just that it sounds a little bit similar and possibly could help someone else out down the road.
Replaced everything with Mallory products-No Problems.
-Fawcett

ronstang94 · Mar 31, 2008

what about the tach? is it normal for it to drop to zero when there is low voltage?

Venom351R · Mar 31, 2008

Id say your Coil and your alt are your two main culprits.

HISSIN50 · Mar 31, 2008

In my experience, tachs start getting twitchy when the battery is about to crap out, but they generally don't fall to zero and stay. They require no power to run so there's no reason to have one shut down (as opposed to shutting down the ABS on a GM because the solenoids in ABS actually suck some power).

Once the charging system is up to par (or you even have a fully charged, known good battery and nothing else is going to break or catch on fire, etc), you will have a better idea of what's up.

Good luck.

Numbles · Mar 31, 2008

I have experienced this problems twice with sn-95 mustangs. One with a 95gt and once with a 97 v6. Both were the alternator seizing and losing voltage till the battery died.

desertcox05 · Apr 1, 2008

like most have already said I'd look at the alt first. Your car actually runs on the alt and the batt is mainly there for start ups but it is there for a back up if the alt dies just to get you home. Charge the batt. start the car put the multimeter on both batt posts voltage should be 14v or better. if not there the prob

ronstang94 · Apr 2, 2008

charged the battery to about 11 volts
first thing i noticed it took a little while for it to start and sounded like crap doing it
the tach was working again
went around in front and checked how the voltage was doing
it was at around ten and dropping about a volt a second
when i would rev the engine it would go up a little

is it possible that it is just the voltage regulator or is it probably just the whole alternator. Just wondering what everyone thinks, because its going to be a while before I get to work on the car again . I know I have to take it off no matter what and go get it tested at the parts store anyways, but im just anxious to figure this out.

HISSIN50 · Apr 2, 2008

11 volts is severely discharged (even 11.99 volts is badly discharged). Once you get it totally up to full charge (12.66 volts or so), then you can let it run off the battery for a minute or two (a decent battery is capable of supplying more than enough power for running like this, hence why guys at the track run without an alt).

It sounds like the alt took a dump since you smelled funny things. One way I isolate bad bearings in alts (sometimes they get grumpy when hot before actually totally going. A la GM rear pocket bearings) is to have the dude bench test the alt till it gets toasty. When a load is placed on it, you can often hear the bearing start to make bit of noise. It's easy to hear on a bench test (compared to over your engine's symphony).

It'll take you all of 5 mins to remove the alt so that should not be a biggie. Remember that the cable on the back of the alt is hot, so disconnect it at the solenoid or just be really mindful of it when you disconnect it (don't just let it fall onto whatever is around).

Regulators do take a dump and are not too bad to replace but me-thinks your alt itself might have taken a poo poo.

Good luck with the diagnostics.

ronstang94 · Apr 2, 2008

everything takes me way longer than it should. im a perfectionist, which is a very stressfull thing, especially with how hard it is to get and keep a car perfect. I am an architecture student and we have drawings and models due constantly, the perfectionist thing is very time consuming here as well.

any point in upgrading the alternator?

HISSIN50 · Apr 2, 2008

ronstang94 said:
any point in upgrading the alternator?

Depending upon what kind of stereo and other stuff you have, it can be nice to have an alt that at least puts out a little more juice at idle.

In any case, be careful with parts store reman'd units. Their QC seems to often be lacking.

Good luck.

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