Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting No Start

Hi,

This morning when i went to start my car all i got was a click and the dash lights flickered and dimmed a bit. It wasnt the usual try to start and the battery dies sort of start, then i tried to start it again and the wipers did one swipe. If I leave the ignition on some of the lights stay on and others flicker on and off. I think that my alternator is on its way out, would this have anything to do with it?

Any ideas would be great.

Thanks for your help.

I have the same problem--even the wiper making one pass. The car was driving fine. Came out of Home Depot and the battery was dead--so dead that it wouldn't jump start. I just trailered the car back home. The battery took a charge, but it still wouldn't start. I put the charger on Start Mode and it turned over quickly enough to start, but wouldn't fire. The battery is charging up to about 12.9 volts, but drops way down (something like 5 volts) when you turn on the lights or try to start it. Usually, a battery won't charge to more than 12 volts or so when it's this dead. I'll report back when I put a new battery in. What's this mega fuse I keep reading about for the alternator? Where is it located? (99 Contour SE, 4 cylinder, automatic) Thanks for your help.

Welcome garrettkjr .

This is what the megafuse looks like.
http://www.contour.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=trouble&Number=1273499&Forum=trouble&Words=megafuse&Match=Entire%20Phrase&Searchpage=0&Limit=25&Old=6months&Main=1273442&Search=true#Post1273499

Location of megafuse for the Duratec V6.
http://www.contour.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=trouble&Number=1098148&Forum=trouble&Words=here%20sign&Match=And&Searchpage=3&Limit=25&Old=1year&Main=1095791&Search=true#Post1098148

It appears that the Zetec I4 megafuse might be in the same location as the Duratec V6.

Originally posted by tiv:

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... for me ('97 Zetec Contour) it was behind the engine in a longish rectangular black plastic box. Its an inline fuse, accessible from above.

Tiv

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Well, that opened up a can of worms. I was thinking that the alternator went out and took the battery with it. Now I'm wondering about megafuses and wiring too.

First things first. Check that the battery terminals are clean. Then get the car jump started. Even if the battery is bad the car should run fine. Check that battery with the car running. If you are getting 13-14.5 volts your alt. is good. (really it should be closer to 14) Then take to the battery to any good auto parts store and have it checked. If it's bad, get a new one while your already there. If the battery is good, then you can get into the possibility of other problems. What your describing is exactly the same symptoms my car had when the alt. died.

The terminals are clean, but the battery would not jump start for anything. I'm a car dealer and I just bought the car at auction, so I have no idea how old the battery is. It's a Wal-Mart battery and the date was not punched. I am still puzzled that it took a charge, but would only turn over when I used my charger on Start Mode to help it, and even then it still wouldn't start. I'll won't be back on that car until tomorrow. Hopefully the car will fire up with a new battery and I can check the alternator, which is still my best guess.

BTW, the car drove fine for a couple of days during daylight. Yesterday it was raining. It was the first time I've driven the car with lights and wipers on, so I'm thinking that was just enough to overwork the weak alternator and run off of the battery.

I found a cell in the battery that was very low on water. I added water and tried recharging again, but it was still putting out too little juice to crank the engine. That explains the weird voltage problems when trying to start. I found a place on the internet that says how to decode the date stamp on batteries and learned that the battery was just out of the two year replacement period by a couple of months, but was still in the prorated period. I took it to Walmart and showed the girl the date code and paid $18 for a new battery. The alternator is putting out 14.45 volts. The car is running great again, sips gas, and should make one of my customers very happy. Thanks for the help!

How to read the date code on batteries: Look at the first two characters in the code. One is a number and the other is a letter. Sometimes the number is first and sometimes the letter comes before the number. The number represents the year. 0 = 2000, 1 = 2001, etc. The letter represents the month. A = January, B = February, etc.

Thanks for posting. And thanks for taking care of the issue so that the person who buys the car and signs up on this site will not have to deal with it.