Hey guys, so I have a water leak in my trunk (yet to find where its leaking from) quickly ran over it with some gasket sealer to reseal my weatherguard where it was torn but anyways everytime i start my car in the morning it bogs and barely has power.. everything from lights to dash get brighter when i accelerate it shakes and trys to idle at 500 rpm when its at the coldtest tick on temp gauge.. Blinks battery light but has no engine light to read codes. I am not sure if my alternator is freezing or my battery.. Car died the other night.. Jumped it. Drove and restarted left for an hour and it wouldnt start again.. Replaced battery but now when i accelerate alot (4-6k rpms my dash blinks and my deck loses power and then comes back on... but car dosent shut off is it my alternator ? I cant tell because my new battery is still holding charge..
Freezing Battery/Bad Alternator?
- Thread starter Chinden
- Start date
joegr
Dedicated LVC Member
There can be and are codes stored even without a check engine light. The generic scan tools will only read the generic OBD2 codes. The really good scan tools will also read the Ford specific codes and sensors.
The "battery light" is not triggered by a bad battery. It is only triggered by a charging system fault. Most of the time (but not always) this is a failing alternator.
Get something like this
http://www.amazon.com/NEEWER®-Displ...9326423&sr=8-9&keywords=plug-in+battery+gauge
(only $8) and use it to monitor your electrical system voltage. The issue should be obvious then. With the engine running, the voltage should be around 14.4 volts. It should never go above 14.8 or below 13.8 while the engine is running.
The "battery light" is not triggered by a bad battery. It is only triggered by a charging system fault. Most of the time (but not always) this is a failing alternator.
Get something like this
http://www.amazon.com/NEEWER®-Displ...9326423&sr=8-9&keywords=plug-in+battery+gauge
(only $8) and use it to monitor your electrical system voltage. The issue should be obvious then. With the engine running, the voltage should be around 14.4 volts. It should never go above 14.8 or below 13.8 while the engine is running.
Telco
Dedicated LVC Member
In addition, extremely low temperatures are hard on batteries. Batteries do not produce as much charge at lower temperatures for starting, which is why they are rated in CCA, or Cold Cranking Amps.
I agree with Joe, replacing the alternator would probably be a good idea, and the alternator and battery should be replaced together. The reason is, a bad battery will overstress an alternator trying to charge it, which will blow the diodes out of the rectifier. Alternately, a blown rectifier will not properly charge a battery, and the battery will fail due to plate sulfation. Before I learned about this, I had an El Camino that had a bad battery. I was also broke at the time, and had to nurse it along. When I finally replaced the battery, I'd blown the alternator. When the battery failed shortly after, I assumed the alt was bad. Shortly after, the battery was dead again. Etcetera. After a few batteries and alternators, I decided to replace both at once and that broke the cycle.
As a side note, a buddy of my dad's worked for Exide Battery Corp as an engineer. He told my dad that they did battery testing, and found that if you put your car on a battery charger for an hour once a week that your battery would last forever. Too much trouble for me right now, but one day I might give it a try.
If your battery is bad enough to replace, replace the alternator and battery together.
I would also note that unless the trunk leaked enough water to damage the battery case when it froze via mechanical damage (water expands when it freezes, interesting that it also expands when it boils), that the trunk water leak would have nothing to do with the battery failing unless the water vapor caused corrosion around the battery terminals. The case is plastic, and therefore is waterproof.
I agree with Joe, replacing the alternator would probably be a good idea, and the alternator and battery should be replaced together. The reason is, a bad battery will overstress an alternator trying to charge it, which will blow the diodes out of the rectifier. Alternately, a blown rectifier will not properly charge a battery, and the battery will fail due to plate sulfation. Before I learned about this, I had an El Camino that had a bad battery. I was also broke at the time, and had to nurse it along. When I finally replaced the battery, I'd blown the alternator. When the battery failed shortly after, I assumed the alt was bad. Shortly after, the battery was dead again. Etcetera. After a few batteries and alternators, I decided to replace both at once and that broke the cycle.
As a side note, a buddy of my dad's worked for Exide Battery Corp as an engineer. He told my dad that they did battery testing, and found that if you put your car on a battery charger for an hour once a week that your battery would last forever. Too much trouble for me right now, but one day I might give it a try.
If your battery is bad enough to replace, replace the alternator and battery together.
I would also note that unless the trunk leaked enough water to damage the battery case when it froze via mechanical damage (water expands when it freezes, interesting that it also expands when it boils), that the trunk water leak would have nothing to do with the battery failing unless the water vapor caused corrosion around the battery terminals. The case is plastic, and therefore is waterproof.
nice find, never seen one of those. thanks
cammerfe
Dedicated LVC Member
"Very clever, these Chinese"
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