Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Charging Troubles

I know Someone just posted on this, but i am having the same problem. I have a 97 SE and Have just replaced the alternator 2 times within the last week. About 10 miles after the first alternator and about 20 after the second the Battery light came back on. It now has a brand new battery too, replacing the one I replaced in January. I just went down the road and within 5 miles of replacing the battery the battery light came back on. My father-in-law is a mechanic and he says that the battery isnt charging. We checked the Megafuse and it is intacted. He has been a mechanic for 32 years and this problem even stumps him. Ive been reading that this isnt that uncommon of a problem in the troubleshooting forum. the only problem is that i havent really seen any solution posted for the problem and i figure someone has to have made some progress. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

I went through something similar a while back. My car died so I went to get a new battery because it was dead. The new battery died a day later, so we realized it was the alternator. Got that replaced and got the battery recharged. Then the battery died again...took it back to the mechanic and he says that somehow power isn't getting to the alternator. Turns out that my old battery cracked and leaked on everything under it. Got the wires replaced car ran fine(until the transmission blew)

~darp~
I'm probably no help but I can give you a few pics if you want me to show you.

I called 3 Ford dealers today and 2 of them said that i'm getting bad alternators from the shop(they're reman). The 3rd said that I had to reset the ECM or a relay could be bad?
Any other thoughts?

And yes those pics would be helpful if you could send them.

I'm also facing the same problem. It is still in the process of being fixed at the dealership. They say that the alternator was bad (tested before I put it in and it was fine, now, 1 week later, Ford says its bad...hmmm). They also say that the wires from the alternator to the battery might be bad too.

Hope that helps,
Joe