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Alternator Problem?

O

omega1

New CEG'er
Joined
Jul 19, 2009
Messages
6
Location
Goodyear, Arizona
I just recently put a new alternator on my 99 contour 2.0. had it tested before I left the autoparts store. replaced belt and tensioner too. Drove 20 miles to work, no problems. On my way home and the alternator light came on. checked charging at the battery and alternator and both are 12.5. This is the second time this has done this. I had 50 miles on the last alternator. Any ideas on what it could be? im lost! Thanks guys
 
Check the mega fuse on the positive battery cable. It's located above or underneath the intake manifold. If the mega fuse is broke, that's your problem. You'll need to replace it.
 
maxi fuse is good and the grey wire is too. im gonna take the alt and have it checked. maybe something internally went wrong. Maybe i just keep getting crap alternators. gonna have it checked tomorrow. hopefully thats it. im lost if its not!
 
Lavell said:
Check the mega fuse on the positive battery cable. It's located above or underneath the intake manifold. If the mega fuse is broke, that's your problem. You'll need to replace it.
Click to expand...

If the mega fuse is bad is the only symptom no alternator output? Nothing else affected by a blown mega fuse?_
 
This is true if the mega fuse is broken and pieces of it fell on the ground. However, since the mega fuse resides in a plastic case, it's very possible that the mega fuse can still make contact even if it's broken at the connectors. I know this because it happen to me about 2 years ago. The mega fuse was broken. But because it was in its own plastic case and was broken at the connectors, I was still able to start the car. As a result, the output of the alternator was very poor.

Silver Bullet said:
If the mega fuse is bad is the only symptom no alternator output? Nothing else affected by a blown mega fuse?_
Click to expand...
 
I am having a similar problem with my 97 2.0 M/T 'Tour. Must be something in the air this week.

My battery light does not come on but when the alternator gets tested, the test can not be completed because it shows 0 charging. I batery is good amd the altyernator is new. Well, I s'ppose the new alternator cold be bad. I am thinking maybe a short somewhere. But right now I am crossing my fingers for the mega fuse. But the way my luch has been lately, I'm not betting on it.
 
has anyone tried "the alternator fix"? I think i need to try it on mine, but the problem could be also a short on the wiring harness! i have same issue wehre alternator is not charging eveyrthing was checked and double checked including the mega fuse and also fuse #5 which ive read is for fog lights but also for alternator, anyways we were looking at the wiring harness and most of the wires were falling apart and some were already cracked/shorting out each other, i had mine completely rewired with new wire/heatshrink but havent put it back in yet. If it still has issues charging i might try that alternator fix
 
the wiring mod for the alternator is for the V6, what engine do you have? since you haven't tried it with the fixed harness i wouldn't do anything yet.
 
have you had any positive results from your attempts to fix this issue? i'm having an issue now where if i let the car idle the lights all dim. and if it idles long enough the car finally dies and i need to jump start it. this doesn't happen if i keep revving to ~1500 rpms.

i'm gonna check the wires and the mega fuse to see what condition they're in.
 
Take this with a grain of salt, but the experienced alternator tech whom I purchased my rebuilt alt from provided me with his theory about why our remanufactured alts apparently fail frequently. This was in regards to my V6, but may also apply to the Zetec.

He stressed that I needed to charge my battery to full before starting the car with the new alt. He said that our alts weren't designed to charge depleted batteries and doing so may damage the alt. He believed that our remanned alts fail frequently because they are used to charge batteries previously depleted by an alt failure and are damaged from heat doing so, greatly reducing their lifespan.

I honestly don't know how sound this theory is, but you may consider it if you need a new alt.
 
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