What is wrong with my car?
 

So im driving home today in my 2007 GT Mustang and the stereo cuts out. After that about 1 min later my abs turns off and my airbag. Another minute after that and im driving black, my instrament panel and everything goes out. Made it home just fine as thing kept trying to turn back on only to cut off after a few seconds.

I get home, park the car, look under the hood and i dont see anything blowing up or burning, looks normal, everything feels the right temp. I go to start the car back up and just starter click, as if the battery is dead.

I'm guessing either bad battery or alternator. What do you guys think and what should I check out first and how should I test? (I like fix things myself whenever possible)

If you were losing your electrical components as you were driving, it's a dead alternator. Depending on how far down, and how old your battery is, you might have killed it too. Get the alternator, get a jump, and see if you battery will hold a charge.

Pretty certain to be the alternator. Try replacing the alternator and then see how things go. I think that'll fix your problem and hopefully the battery is still A-OK

Sound like the alternator! If it stops charging it will run all the electrical from the battery till its dead! your lucky you made it home!

Just throwing this out there, but make sure to familiarize yourself with the water leak TSB. It tends to cause long term damage to the SJB and create electrical problems.

I was going to mention this.


But it sounds like the alternator.

Unless you have a deep cycle battery, the battery is probably toast. Today's batteries don't take too well to being deeply discharged, even one time. A professional shop might be able revive it so that it will have a decent remaining life. If the battery is three or more years old, though, I wouldn't bother--get a new one.

I hate how batts are like that now: one deep discharge and you HAVE to throw it away.

I tried reviving many a deep discharged batt, they only puff up as gases are released in the cells.

Take your battery to autozone or advanced auto and have it tested. It may need to be replaced out too.

Flat Area on left tail pipe.
 

I have been trying to get answers from my dealer and I have also posted the question on the forum but have not received a reply. Being new to this forum I am not sure I am actually posting to the right area.

The tail pipe on the drivers side, between the muffler and Cad is a flat area about 2 ft long 3/8 inch deep on the bottom of the pipe. It looks as if it is a machined pressed flat area. It has nothing to do with passing thru anything and the other tail pipe for the other side is normal. It is on my new just purchased 2011 V6 (factory duel pipes all the way). I did not hit anything and does not look like an accidental flattened area. Is this a normal flattened area from the factory? Does any other 2011 V6's have the same thing?

Holy thread jack FastTraveler... LOL...

On a serious note, did you go looking because you were experiencing a problem or just noticed it for some other reason? If you are have a problem I would take it to the dealership... If no problems, it may be like you suggested, machine pressed at the exhaust manufacturer. You said you have not hit anything, the only thing that comes to my mind is maybe when the vehicle was loaded/unloaded off the transporter, it might have made contact with the ramps, but then I would think you would notice scrapes on the rocker panels, etc... Probably nothing and I can only speculate, but hopefully this was by design... Start a new thread and let us know...

Don

Flat Area on left tail pipe.
 

I went back to the dealer and had them place a new 2011 Mustang V6 on a rack so we could take a look. It had the same thing Flattened area top and bottom of the pipe about 2 ft long, 3/8 inch deep top and bottom. This is quite a large restriction of the exhaust flow. I have gone to the expense of placing Magnaflow street exhaust allow less restriction of the exhaust and improve performance along with MPG. This is a big screw up and for no reason. Ordering a new tail pipe would only result in getting another one the same way. I have gone to Ford for a correction, but doubt the will do anything. I can have it cut out and and have a piece put in. From our examination of the V6 it looks as if all are that way.

I discovered it from having it up to replace the muffler with the magnaflow. BTW was easy to install, fit perfectly and sounds great!

It's the alternator my friend. I just went through this not too long ago. Do yourself a favor and get a PA Performance replacement, the oem alternators have a reputation for going out on you. You didn't happen to just put a set of Underdrive Pulleys on did you?

Dealer says alternator is good
 

Did the front bumper, grill upgrade and wired the fogs via a relay into the junction box under the hood and switched off the low beam wire. Not long afterwards, the original battery died so I replaced it and that was around October. 3 days ago the new(autozone Duralast Gold) battery went dead while driving the car. I had the lights, heater and radio on so I quickly shut everything unnecessary off and tried to rev the engine above 1500 rpm in an attempt to keep the car running. I made it about 10 minutes before the whole thing shut down on me. Went back to autozone (fortunately it was about a block away and my wife was able to pick me up) and they tested the battery. They said the battery was good it just needed a charge. I bought another one just like it to get me home and installed it. Brought the car back to autozone (they insisted on checking the alternator) and the guy put the test unit on the battery and said the alternator wasn't charging the battery. Anyway I took his word for it and went home. Took the vehicle to the dealer this morning and had them check the system and they claim the alternator is fine. I've never noticed water on the floor of the car, nor have I ever seen it leak into the passenger area. I'm wondering if the same alternator is being used on the V6 pony packages is the same one as the standard Mustangs. The alternator starts charging above 1500 rpm so I'm wondering if my jaunts to work are not enough to keep the battery charged with the fogs, radio and whatever else is on. Anyway, I'm looking to put a voltage gauge and possibly a ammeter seeing how you can't tell what is going on until its too late and the radio displays a 'Low Battery' notice. Maybe a lower RPM alternator would be an alternative?

For a complete answer you may wish to register and ask on the12volt.com forum. However, I´ve not heard of that. And my car´s battery would be dead many a time over were that the case.

I´m running HID´s (factory for CS @ 5400lu), a carpc with an E8400 core 2 duo (85watts for the processor alone), peripherals and fairly high wattage amps. I start my car in the morning and leave it for sometimes a half hour, idles far below that.

Of course you have to be using an alternator that can cope, usually being say 30% over-production of what your drain is I think is the standard rule of thumb. But my stock one is still well above it even with all the after-market stuff I´ve tacked on. Still sounds like an alternator issue in one sense or another, either that it can´t charge, isn´t sensing the voltage correctly to charge at times, or the bearings are beginning to fail entirely. Many times when they fail it isn´t that they´ve died, it´s more that they´ll work ok for a bit, then stop, then work, etc..

It could also be as simple as a corroded ground for the alternator itself. I´d check the grounding lead first before the next jaunt out. For a few simplistic tests and examples, see here.

This is what I believe also.^^^^^^^

My first thought was the alternator. Dealer claims they put a full load on it and it came up clean but I'm still suspicious of that. Knowing how electronics hate heat, I'm inclined to believe that under load and after running for a while, the alternator malfunctions and fails to provide say 13.8 - 14.2 volts out but drops below that to 12.5 to 12.75 which would, still under load, not be sufficient to charge the battery and run all the accessories but not trigger any error codes. I'm looking for some gauges for my own diagnosis and piece of mind. I have about 20K left on my extended warranty and if its a bad part, I'd rather it be taken care of under warranty.

I hate to say it, but the fastest and easiest way to get them to deal with it would be to start throwing in metal shavings to the thing.

Joking in the sense of actually doing it, but realistic in the sense the only way they´ll deal with it is if they can see it themselves that it´s failing/failed. Which means if it´s intermittent, and you can´t replicate it for them, your screwed til it finally totally bites it. And you could single-handedly keep Die-Hard batteries in business with a 10point stock market raise for an indefinite period until that occurs.

Although, being a nag works more often then not, I´d just keep bringing it in til they cave. Maybe that Ford Customer Service guy will spot this thread later and chime in. Put in a dealer pimp-slap or two to speed the process. ;)
http://www.supermotors.net/getfile/6.../rickjames.jpg

After running some tests with a voltmeter I confirmed it was likely the alternator so I went and picked up an ultima alternator from oreillys auto parts for about $200. Installed it myself, used a charger to charge my battery back up (it was down to about 10.5v). Fired up fine and has been running strong for a week now.

thanks guys

Sweet! Glad to hear that.

Ok so here is what I did. I went and bought one of those cheap plug in voltage monitors from AutoZone and plugged it into the 12V outlet in the middle of the dash. Here are my results:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9714364/IMG_0179.MOV

No the alternator cannot handle everything running in the car and yes I believe it does have a problem. It fluctuates way too much at 1500 RPM, almost 1 volt at times and probably even more. So here is the synopsis: Driving in Louisiana at dark with the headlights on at 55 MPH, air conditioner on high fan, and the radio playing at 50% volume, the battery will eventually go dead. Yep there is definitely something wrong with that.

If you can replicate it for them, and/or give them video, you should be set.

Glad the stang is back to normal!

Good deal. This happened to me. I put on a new battery on an bad alternator in my 05, a made it about 3/4 a mile down the road before the entire thing shut down. Turns out the alternator reversed the current in the battery and fused the battery cables together. Good times. I knew I was in it deep when I was sitting at a stop light and saw smoke easing out from under my hood. I think I said something like " I'm pretty sure that's not supposed to be happening".

check battery with volt meter. 11-12 volts=good battery. check again while engine on and it should be around 14-16=good alternator.

A good battery should test at 12.6-12.8V without the engine running. Anything less is NG.

Hey kc5mhb,

My name is Deysha from Ford Customer Service. I noticed this concern keeps coming back and I know it can be frustrating. I would like to look into this further for you. Do you mind sending me your VIN, mileage, contact info and dealership info via private message so I can see how I can help?

Deysha

Sketch

I got a better idea. You send me your REAL name employee id, residence, date of birth, and I'll have my agency's fleet manager verify you through Ford and your name will let me run you through Thinkstream. I don't give out VIN information and seeing how I work for Law Enforcement, determining if you are legit or not should be quite easy. Once verified I'll give you the OASIS id and you can follow up from there.

Yeah, why not just give an 800 # to call with a reference # attached to use?

Seems about as legit as an email asking to wire money for little ¨Pepe¨´s heart-bypass surgery in Afghanistan.

:icon_banhim:

wats up yall. My alternator broke down too so I was wondering, I know this guy that has a junked up 2001 ford Explorer with a 4.0 same engine as the the 05 mustang sixer that i drive. You think if i swap alternators it would function properly. would they produce the same amps and sh!T.

Do you know if they are the same part number? If not, I am sure there are a number of online resources that will list part numbers for each and you can compare. Or if you are able, just go look and see if there part numbers on the alternators are the same. If they are they should have the same output.

Don

Autozone or advanced auto can check your batt & alt. Its one of the two.... No big deal, I would put my money on short in batt. Good Luck

Have your alt rebuilt 35/60 dollars.....Get a new batt.

So long as it does as many amps or better, your ok in that respect. As BigDinTexas states you can just look up the alternators via the part #´s and see their rated amperage. Being able to produce more than stock is a bonus. Just don´t want to be under the original.

As for fitting, that someone else will need to chime in, as I´m unsure if the fittings and sizes are standardized in any way.

Its not so much the voltage has how many amps when load testing! Have seen many batteries that are 12.5 volts and once you load test them drop to 5v or less

OK, took mine to the dealer this past Monday and guess what? The alternator was not charging the battery. Duh! I told them that on the first visit. What helped me is that I bought one of those little monitors that you plug into the 12V accessory outlet in the middle of the dash and watched it as I drove. Stopping at red lights and stop signs caused the voltage to drop below 12V. I relayed this information back to my service guy and within 2 hours they had it fixed. I had the extended warranty so I only paid $100 instead of $261 for the alternator. I tried to look online for a replacement voltage regulator for these but did not find any listed. Apparently they don't want you fixing these and would rather have the whole thing replaced.

Good to hear they finally got it resolved for you.