Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting This sucks!

Alright, i'm going to try to describe my problems, as best as i can; i can't really think too straight right now, so if it doesn't make sense, i apologize.


So I guess i'll start with today morning....when i got to school i locked the doors and i notice that they sound weird almost a little sluggish, but i was late for class so i said [censored] it and didn't think much of it....fast forward to 8pm tonight, i'm leaving campus and on my way to driving homw, and about 1 mile from school (still 25 miles from home) the battery light turns on...now i was still in downtown detroit at this point, and i really didn't feel like pulling over so i kept driving. Fast forward about 21 miles and i'm just a few miles from home...i notice the dash lights seem to be dim...i turn the radio off, turn off all other accesories and just keep the car going at 70ish mph... then i notice a few seconds later that my tach is sitting zero, i think oh crap, she's not gonna make it home....few seconds later, the clock on my headunit begins to flash on and off...few seconds later, some of the dash warn9ing lamps flash on....then i think it's time to pull over....try to set the hazards, and they wont work....now im on the shoulder coasting down to like 15mph...all of a sudden the car starts bucking hard....now up until this point, i was pissed, but in the back of my mind, i'm thinking, i've read about stuff like this before, sounds like the battery is dying for whatever reason.

...Now the problem is that the battery is new...like less than a year old. I suppose that it could be the alternator going....but there's more interesting info that needs to be considered....

Now we can go back to thanksgiving break, there was a 4 day period when i was sick and my car hadn't moved...at the end of that period, i went to drive my car, and had noticed that my fog lamps don't work...the lamps didn't work, and the dash indicator wouldn't light up....later on that night i decided to just look at the junction box under the hood and check the fog lamp fuse...i check it , and its fine, then i shine my flashlite over on top of my manifold....there's some giant brown balls sitting on top of it, like 3.5" in diameter...i look closer, and it looks like some type of seed or walnut or something...and i look closer and there's crumbs all over my manifold....i guess some [censored] piece of [censored] squirrel or something (probably a squirrel since thre's like 2 that live somewhere around my house) stored food in my engine bay....2 nut things shoved between the runners of the intake manifold, one jammed between the coil pack and the valve cover, another one behind the power steering fluid reservoir...so ya, i was pissed....

also another thing...now whenever i turn my headlamps off, the abs light flashes for half a second...and i dont even have abs on my car.

so i'm thinking that when that [censored] shady ass squirrel decided to get comfortable in my engine bay, he dedided to munch on some wires as well.

My car is sitting dead in the garage right now with a battery that has 11.55ish volts, and god knows what other problem...

I guess it could be the alternator... i really dont know that it isnt... but i'm leaning towards that squirrel having cut through some wires and shorted something out since i'm having those problems with the fog lamps and the abs indicator issue.


The thing that sucks the most is that all of this is happening while im in the midst of like 4 design projects for my engineering classes and a week away from finals...so i don't even have time to mess with the car to see wtf is wrong with it.


Well anyway, if you made it this far....THANKS FOR READING!!!...and basically i'm looking for some insight, does it sound like some sort of short was introduced by the furry rat...and that's causing a drain of the battery?

TIA



EDIt: and also, just to get this out of the way, the battery terminals are clean, they had dielectric grease put on them not too long ago, and the clamps are tight...also...the only changes made to the car were new brakes and rotors like 3 weeks ago...other than that, nothing has been changed on the car in many months...it was in great running condition.

another note, i have projectors installed on the car and made a 12 gauge harness with relays sending power from the battery....this harness was on the car for several months with no problems...and i feel confident with my wiring...but just to be safe, i checked it today, and all the wiring looked insulated and safe

Similar thing happened to my sisters Jeep Grand Cherokee. The problem with that was just the battery. I would run the tests like stated above. Good luck

Thanks guys! I guess that's the next step, i should test the alternator before i freak out too much...

My 95 Tour still has the original Alternator! When the battery when bad, the car went haywire! With all the electronics on board today, it's normal.
Battery or Alt for sure. Clean out the squirel nesting as well.

Keep a little cup of antifreeze somewhere under your car. Animals love the taste of the stuff and you'll only have to clean up dead squirrel once, not nuts every time the little bastard decides to make a home in your engine bay.

If you have outside pets it would be a good idea to stash them inside while doing this.

Most parts places will test your battery for free. If that doesn't do the trick move to the alt. If that's not it those crttiers ate some wiring and it has gotten worse.

Thanks guys!

Last night i just disconnected the battery and left the car in the garage so that if there is a short, the battery won't be completely killed, and i wouldn't have to risk anything else.

I guess when i get some time now i'll check on the battery and alternator and check back in once i find out the condition of those things...

Did some measuring with the voltmeter tonight....seems like the problem is kind of obvious, but i still wonder what the cause of the problem is....



Here's what i found:

Voltage at battery terminals with the car off: 12.82 V

Voltage at battery terminals with the car on: 12.39 V

When you rev the car, the voltage seemed to sit right about at 12.3X....and when the car was started, voltage dipped to 11.6 momentarily...fwiw.

So ya looks like it's safe to say that the alternator is not charging the battery.

So my question is...that fuse on the alternator...when it blows....that stops the alternator from charging the battery, right?

And a short in the right spot will take out that fuse, right.

The reason that i'm wondering this stuff is because even if the alternator is dead, it still doesnt explain the issue with the fog lamps dying, or the thing with the abs light flashing....it doesnt make a ton of sense to me.