Check Charging System - Service Parking Brake ... Related?

[BrilliantPsycho]

Hi Everyone!! Ive been reading your site for the last few weeks and it has helped me out tremendously. So let me start by saying THANK YOU!! To everyone who has contributed on this site. I finally realised that my authorization email to post was going to spam, so i will be contributing myself shortly on some things i picked up on myself considering i have changed my " Degas Bottle, Thermostat, Alternator, Belt, Radiator, Front and Rear Brakes, plus a few cosmetic issues" in the last 2 weeks. But for now, my issue......

I have a 2005 Lincoln LS V8. She just hit 100,000 aaaaaaaand ,... she started falling apart.

1.) My check charging system light came on on my way to taking someone to the airport again, then Battery Light, and then after about 40 miles of driving, she starts shutting off non critical power sources. (AC, Traction Control, Wipers Barely Move, No Horn, Radio, ect.) But she still got me all the way home another 40 miles.

This happened to me last week and i put in a New Battery and Alternator. She drove fine for the last few days and now im back to square one. Any suggestions on where to check next?

2.) My Service Parking Brake came on a 2 weeks ago. I changed both front and rear brakes. RESET them, but now every time i press the accelerator it beeps a warning to Service Parking Brake. Before the brakes she only did it once at startup.

My temporary fix: What i am doing is disconnecting the battery prior to driving and resetting the brakes each time. This only lets it beep once at startup. But once i turn the car off and then on again, she Beeps insistingly each time i press the accelerator.

Any ideas?? These issues wouldnt be related would they? I always had a badass car, but i never took the time to learn about them before, i used to just take it to the mechanic, ........ shame on me........ until i had a Huge issue with finding a mechanic able to fix my AC. Long story (DCCV) And an Overheating issue (Did you bleed it through the Heater Air Bleed? .. Whats That?? ..Yeah.) ....... so with the Help of this site, a little Youtube, and my Buddy, ive just been doing it myself. So any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[joegr]

Do the parking brakes work? Did you screw the rear pistons back in? Did you turn them such that the notch in the piston lined up with the peg on the pad? Did you follow the electronic parking brake initialization procedure in the owner's manual? When the e-brake is working correctly, it never beeps any warning (unless you go to use it as an emergency brake while the car is moving). A bad DCCV can also cause e-brake problems.

BTW, that's not a "battery" light. It's an alternator problem light.

 

[BrilliantPsycho]

No the Parking Brake hasnt worked in a while, i never used it so i didnt really care until it started beeping and beeping and beeping ughhhh. The rear pistons were screwed in where as the notch lined up with the peg. I then followed precise procedures for resetting the brakes, but the service parking brake still glows yellow, and as i mentioned before, beeps each time i hit the accelerator.

The DCCV Valve was just changed by a Mechanic about two months ago.

Not Battery.. Alternator.. Got it.

But with a new battery and alternator in there, where do i look next?

 

[joegr]

Why don't you identify what is wrong with the parking/emergency brake system and fix that. It will stop beeping once it is repaired. I want a working parking/emergency brake because:
1. I want a backup stopping method should the main brakes fail.
2. I want to make sure the transmission doesn't get stuck in park if I park on an incline.
3. I want to prevent damage to the parking pawl in the transmission.
4. I don't like the car rocking back and forth on the ferry.
5. I want everything on my cars to work, and work correctly.

 

[1LoudLS]

But with a new battery and alternator in there, where do i look next?

this is probably both the problem AND the solution...


tell me about your new alternator. where did you get it? what brand is it? new or reman?

1.) My check charging system light came on on my way to taking someone to the airport again, then Battery Light, and then after about 40 miles of driving, she starts shutting off non critical power sources. (AC, Traction Control, Wipers Barely Move, No Horn, Radio, ect.) But she still got me all the way home another 40 miles.

well this is about the worse thing you can do to a car... when your check charging system light comes on, it means that your alternator is no longer doing its job (recharging the battery and running the car) this means that the car is now being powered just from the battery which is very limited, and as the battery gets more and more drained, the voltage gets lower and lower until all of the cars systems cant be supported anymore and crash (note, its not that those systems are not critical, its just that they are all dying as there is not enough power to support them)

first an foremost, this is killing your brand new battery, not draining (although its doing that to) but actually causing damage to the battery to the point where it may no longer function properly and need to be replaced (again)

second, computers don't work well with out the proper amount of power and can also be damaged...



long story very short, when that light comes on, you need to stop driving it right away before your repair bill gets multiplied exponentially.

 

[BrilliantPsycho]

Yes i agree, im sure me driving the car for 80 miles with a busted alternator wasnt the smartest decision, but besides the alternator light coming on and off at times the car drove perfect until i was about 5 miles from my home, so i wasnt exactly sure i was having a problem. (It was raining and my car ALWAYS does weird things in the rain)...

With that said, I am a Moron. I installed a POS Refurbished Alternator from AdvanceAuto, it was the only one they had in stock, and yes, i actually tried to get away with it. But reading further i see others spent about $200 more than mine cost me, so i will be taking it out tomorrow (after rechecking all the connectors) ... and installing this .... "Motorcraft GL662 Alternator" .. will this do?

 

[BrilliantPsycho]

Oh and i'm also going to disassemble the rear brakes again and triple check everything is aligned correctly, and that the parking line looks ok. I did notice that there was slack in the line, like it wasnt tight. Might that be it? Its supposed to have tension doesnt it.

If that's not the problem i will order a EPR Module as my next move.

 

[joegr]

...If that's not the problem i will order a EPR Module as my next move.

Let's not be hasty, you might be ordering the wrong part. There are several parts involved.
There should be some slack (but not much) when the parking brake is released. Does it even try to apply? Do the cables move when you pull up on the switch? Can you hear the motor run?
Parts involved:
Rear brake calipers. Make sure the parking brake levers look correct and have the spring attached. There should be some resistance if you move them by hand, and they should return to the starting position when you release them.
Left and right parking brake cables. Make sure they are hooked into the lever on the caliper and clipped into the equalizer at the other end. Make sure they aren't broken and that the outer part of the cable is also connected correctly at each end. Sometimes the plastic part at the end breaks.
Actuator, cable, and equalizer assembly. Look for obvious faults, but be aware there can be problems that don't show. This is mounted under the car, more or less over the rear axial area.
EPB module. This is the electronic controller. It is in the trunk, on the driver's side. It's tucked out of the way.
Parking brake switch. The plastic of the switch can break in such a way as to cause the warning light and stop operation.
Also, the system uses the CAN bus and talks to other modules in the car. (This is how it knows when to auto release and when to act as an emergency brake.)

For any fault other than an observable physical one, you'll need a scan tool that can pull Ford specific codes from all the modules in the car to be able to tell if it is the EPB module or the EPB actuator.

 

[BrilliantPsycho]

Wow Thank you. I appreciate you taking the time to lay it out for me... I'm very good at following directions.. since I don't know... What I don't know lol

Tomorrow I'll be spending the day checking everything out and replacing the alternator again. Hopefully this one works. I couldn't find a solid answer on the original specs except for... "Ford never put them out.. so at least a Motorcraft or be creative". So I didn't know how many Amps the alternator should be. The cheap one in there now is 150amp. And the Motorcraft that's coming tomorrow is more than double the price.. but it's only a 140amp. I'm not sure how that works. I saw even more expensive ones with only 90amp. It's so sporadic in price that I'm not sure how to piece it together. Do you know how many amps it shooouuuld have ?

And I guess I should mention it as I didn't really think about it before... But after reading about it I realized.... Um I have a small kicker subwoofer in my trunk with a tiny amp attached to it. My friend who will be lending me his scanner tool tomorrow mentioned a battery cap? Which I don't have and he said was essential. Could that be part of my problems.. ?? Please don't judge me. .... Everyone started soooomewhere ...

 

[joegr]

I thought the specs for the factory alternator were fairly well known. From the service manual: 70/134 amps (max) @ 1,800-6,000 generator rpm, approximately 525-2,000 engine rpm

 

[joegr]

For the 1st gen LS (2000-2002), pretty much only Motorcraft works. For the 2nd gen (2003-2006), most brands should work, but some are more reliable than others, and it is a big pain to replace.