maxshuty

Thanks. I looked at my logs and I actually had this happen I think 1.5 years ago , same DTC - I cleared it and it never happened again (until now). I know I cleaned the MAF last time too, I suppose I'll go do that again too. Would you guys recommend spending the money through Ford for their batteries? I believe last I checked it was $115 for the best one with a 100 month warranty which seems like a decent price...

aaquib1992

No way man, OEM motorcraft batteries are not worth the money IMO. Just go out to autozone/napa and grab yourself a nice optima battery or some other nice name brand. But get them to run an alternator/battery test before you buy just to make sure it's not your alternator you need to replace (a common problem with our S197s, as it is a weak point of the charging system).

While you're at it you should clean out your throttle body if you haven't done it before.

maxshuty

Cleaned my throttle body last summer, I'll probably clean that, the air filter, and MAF this weekend. I'll go run those tests hopefully tomorrow. Thanks

maxshuty

Update: Drove to the movies tonight, was meeting my date there and the I arrived early so I let it sit and idle. It died on me, two separate times. I had music on (I have a 7" touchscreen and a small sub in the trunk). The I restarted it, turned all music off, air, everything I could. It idled fine. I turned the music back on and then immediately the wrench light came on and it started idling rough and I gave it some gas so it wouldn't die. So does this sound like an alternator issue? All my mods are listed below, and the sub is turned at its lowest setting - I lost all my bass when I took out the stock shaker so I installed a sub to get the bass back so it's not all high pitched noise all the time.

If it is alternator what do you all recommend getting? I'm really not looking to spend $300+ for one if I can help it.

aaquib1992

Honestly it sounds more and more like it's your charging system. The S197s do weird things when the battery is running low. Mine would randomly turn on and play the shaker's radio (would scare the crap out of me) when my OEM battery was dying, or it would cause my locks to go on the fritz sometimes, or even make my windows lose their auto-down feature. Weird stuff. It was all fixed as soon as I replaced my battery though.

I would get the battery/alt. tested and replace accordingly, that's what I did. My guess is your dying battery or alternator is causing some weird issues with your TPS (maybe not getting enough power). But again just a hunch.

Personally I'd start with the cheapest fix, then if that doesn't fix it, replace the TPS.

red96v6

PA Performance alternator...

Best but expensive,
http://www.paperformance.com/scripts...?idproduct=351

Cheaper but still good,
http://www.paperformance.com/scripts...?idproduct=352

Mine did stupid stuff when the battery was going bad too, mostly with the windows.

On a side note, what happened with your Shaker?

maxshuty

I went to oreillys auto and my battery is testing low and the alternator has a bad diode. Their replacement that is not rebuilt is $240 with a lifetime warranty. Does this seem good or should I avoid them since its probably some generic brand? Also is the install fairly straightforward and simple?

JimC

The alternator is easy, about a 10 minute job. Did you install the Xcharger? If so then the alternator is nothing. Use a breaker bar with a 1/2" (I think) end for a socket and that goes in the square block on the idler arm. Pull to the passenger side and release the belt. The alternator is held on with two 10mm bolts. Unplug the electronics from the back of the alternator, pull the old alternator off and put the new one on, plug in, put the belt back on and done.

As for the quality of the O'Reilly's I can't say. I got 178,200 out of my stock alternator on the 2006 and replaced it with a spare stock alternator I had in the garage that I salvaged when a friend blew up his 4.0. It is still going strong and the new owner said the car has 212,000 miles on it. But that sub you installed may be drawing too much power and you may need to upgrade to the PA alternator.

maxshuty

Install sounds simple enough. I was thinking the same thing about the sub - but now my question is do I fork up the extra cash for a better alternator or do I buy a cheaper one with a lifetime warranty that Ill probably have to replace more. As I said the sub is always on its lowest possible setting, I'm not rolling around bursting people's ear drums. :P but then again I do have the touchscreen and a couple gauges too - so there is a lot going on. I'm thinking it might also be bad because I used to take it on long trips totaling around 250-300 miles per week but this past month or so I've only gone on short grocery store runs and stuff.

The guy at oreillys showed me my battery was testing at 350, will this go up when I replace the alternator and it has a better charge?

Thanks for the info on the install JimC, I'm sure there are threads and stuff I can read up on too.

As for the shaker question - I never had a stock shaker, I just had the single disc player. Shortly after I got the car I upgraded to a Shaker500 to get the 6 disc cd changer, little did I know that since I didn't have door subs that I would lose all my bass. So I put a sub in the trunk so that I wouldn't have to go back to the single disc. Then I decided it would be cool go have a 7" touchscreen so I upgraded the system to that. I'm content now, my alternator isn't. :P

aaquib1992

The alternator choice is really up to you and your preferences. I personally would go with a PA performance one that red96v6 suggested, as their warranties are decent and I dislike having to replace parts multiple times like that. And with so many things in your car drawing power, I think it's safe to say the OEM alternators are no longer going to cut it.

But I can tell you that those short trips were probably what killed your battery more so than the long ones. With the short trips you don't give your alternator enough time/distance to recoup the energy used from the battery for initial start up of the car.

Personally I think one of the PA alternators powdercoated white to match your car would look sweet haha =)