mighted1987

tonight I took my mustang to go meet a friend, on my way to the location, cruising on the highway, I started seeing two light flashing real fast on my dash,
after missing what it was cause it was popping too fast and I was paying attention on the busy road, i noticed it was ABS and traction control, I was like weird...something wrong is coming, then my light and dash light started to shut down, it was already so freaking dark outside, my light were going out and back on every 5 second, after 2 minute doing this, feeling this was dangerous I started aiming the next exit and tryed to do a quick key dance off hoping I would luckily restart a electric bug...wrong, car was dead right there, good side of the bad luck, I had enough speed swing to get right to the exit, take the curve, and get to the stop and pull next to the side of a street...couldnt start the car, a little tick could be hear, but the car seemed to have still some juice, after waiting a bit trying looking at battery altenator and fuse, I tryed starting the car again a couple time and then I noticed it tryed to crank so I gave it some gas and ended starting it back, cruised around seemed fine, I plugged my sct to see my vpower running 11.50, then bang the car lost all power, it almost died this time, I lost all my power, even hazardeous and stuff, parked again, ended being able to reget some power somehow, so I headed home with the sct data logging the volt power all the way, it popped an orange wrench and a low fuel light, the fuel light went off after 10 minute driving around...but I was able to get back home from little street to little street instead of taking the highway in case I have to tow the car.. the volt meter stayed around 12,40 to 12,80....took me 35 minute of slow driving to get home, somehow I closed the car, volt was at 11, tryed starting it again and it worked..closed the car and leaved it so...this is definitly not a solved problem

what happened? it was 34 F / 0 degree outside, could my battery be going out...or would this be an alternator problem? since I was able to head back home after all the weird stuff, im guessing weak altenator woulda drained all my juice...weak battery would have some difficulty feeding the alternator causing this? but how would my car start so easily the first time I took it heading to my friend?
fuse problem?

i forgot to mention somewhere in the story i was able to jumpstart the car while pushing it straight and running in to do the clutch jump start and it worked...
thanks in advance for any feedback

obxdude018

These cars are notorious for diodes failing in the alternator, when mine went it popped a code regarding a circuit problem. The diodes help keep a/c current from being fed to the electronic circuits. You can get a load test done on the battery to help rule that out.

JThor

Is it the original battery? If so, it's 6+ years old and probably at the end of its life. It sounds more like alternator than battery, but I would replace the battery regardless if it's the original.

Nuke

Most likely the alternator but if the battery is more than a year old, replace it.

fastforAPONY

I would bet it is the alternator.
Sounds like what happen to my focus and ranger.
First radio goes out then after a short time, dash lights.
no rpm or mph nothing.
With the focus I had a power steering pump leak and it was getting on the alternator.Fixed pump and alternator started working again.
With the ranger samething,radio first then dash lights.
I think it might have been the voltage regulator.
Cannot get just voltage regulator,had to get whole thing,alternator with regulator
After I put a rebuild alternator ($150.00) on it work the very best.
Before I changed alternator I could charge the battery up and it was good for the day or over night.

JimC

Sounds exactly what happened when my alternator gave up at 188,900 miles. Never had a battery issue, replaced the stock one after 5 years on my 2006 and the alternator lasted many miles like I said. Quick and easy to replace the alternator, and I didn't replace the battery; just had the system checked afterwards to make sure it was all working and the battery was charging properly. Sold it at 203,000 miles with the second battery still in the car.

mighted1987

Thanks guys for the feedback, im going to full charge the battery and remove negatif from the battery when the car is started to see if the car run out of juice instantly, Good news my uncle got a lots of alternator so should not be fixy repair, weird tho car only got 19k mile

JFitz

I vote alternator as well. I had a series of lights pop when mine went bad. Then the second alt was bad after week (remanufactured BS) and it popped lights not even related to the problem. It can do weird stuff.

Safe to check the ground, alt, and battery though. Might as well.

JimC

It seems that there was a thread saying DO NOT test the alternator and charging system this way. It will damage the control module as I recall. Just go to Auto Zone and have them test the system.

mighted1987

update: I lets the battery charged all days, came back 8 hours later to try to start the car and it didnt work, I just hear a click once, my father say he saw some spark coming from somewhere in the engine bay when the tick was heard...wtf is going on