siggyfreud

I've been driving the stang to and from work (about 32 miles each way) these past few days since it's been dry up here. Last night on the way home my check charging system light popped on. I could see my charging guage was closer to center instead of slightly to the right of center as usual. I flipped off my headlights and radio (it wasn't dark outside yet, I just generally drive with the lights on whenever) to conserve juice, and managed to drive the remaining 7-8 miles home on the battery only.

Popped the hood and saw that the red rubber positive terminal cover was noticable charred. Must have been some resistence building up there or somewhere. Going to bench test the alternator today, but the output side of it was only reading 4-5v when running the car, and the battery was reading about 11v, so it obviously wasn't getting a positive charge.

Do 06's fall into the time period for crappy alternators/charging systems?

It should only take 30 mins or so to replace, just curious if anyone else has experienced this.

SaddleUp

Good thing you knew what to do and how to fix it. I'd just end up stuck on the side of the road. :/

Nuke

Don't worry, Shella. I'd have given you a ride...

Siggy, I suspect that although most of the 05's and 06's seem plagued more than the newer years, we'll be seeing more of the 07's thru 09's (and possibly 10's) with this issue. I'm not sure if it's age or mileage related but it seems that the alternator is simply a poor design and/or construction.

siggyfreud

Well it's not a very good sign for the quality given that I just ticked 10k miles on the car hehe.

Oh well. It happens. Just glad I made it home.

Saddle . . . I'm sure there would have been plenty of people eager to help out. Nuke included.

Wally39

I had to replace the alternator in my 06 also. it sucks, because they aren't cheap and Ford should have put quality alternators in a brand new car

J2L06GT

If you had a lose or corroded battery terminal, causes heat,
this would have caused the alternator to work harder and
over load it causing failure.

KXRM

Yup, this is pretty normal for '06. I had to replace mine at 36K miles. My buddy's V6 lost it at 50K. I really think it just has a limited amount of years of use because the mileage just doesn't seem to contribute to the life. It's not difficult to replace, will take about 15 or 20 minutes. Replacements with returned core are about $250.

americaniron

eBay has a lot of alternators for sale at reasonable prices.

AlloySixxer

2007 with 25k miles.

Had to replace the battery and alternator.

I would get an upgraded alternator if I were you (wish I had).

siggyfreud

I'll either get a reman from Ebay, or if I'm going to drop 200+ bucks I'll do one through summit racing. Wish they sold rebuild kits for this one . . .