Hey guys,

2008 grey convertible auto 4.0 with 95,000 miles on the clock here.

I am a bit of a shade tree guy. I usually fix my own car problems short of driveline swaps... Just about everything else. Except electrical... I hate electrical. So last year, I would drive my car and the transmission would shift weird on occasion. Then the car started stalling when shifting from reverse to drive... which I did often due to the nature of the work I do and at that time I was using the car for work putting lots and lots of miles in a short time.

Then the car would randomly have dead battery issues... or symptoms mimicking that. Radio clicking when you turn the key, inconsistent dash lights before the start position, then crank once or twice and click click click. But when I jump the car with another running car, no problem start up and run.

Well for full context I have been needing to get my eyes checked.. so for full disclosure one morning I jumped it off to move it and it wouldn't start. Acting just as crazy as before but this time just wouldn't crank. Realized I had the terminals crossed and jumped it backwards. Fantastic.....

At this point, I decided it was time to call the professionals since who knows what major damage I just did to a car that already had obvious electrical issues. So car sits for a while as I am money tight and have two cars .. then the tow truck driver comes and for sh*ts and giggles throws his jump starter on it. It turns right over immediately and runs perfectly with no lights. My brain melted. Even so, I just let him carry it to ford for diagnosis.

Ford of Columbia calls me a week later and tells me that the car needs a battery to even start diagnostics because it appears exploded on the inside. K, that makes sense I suppose and is rather lucky actually. I figured we could have burnt out the fuse links on the harness, blew the fusebox, blew the alternator, computer... etc. So they tell me they need to run more tests after the battery and see if any other damage was done. Okay fine makes sense.

They call me back telling me there is nothing else wrong, they ran all the electrical tests and everything was fine besides the battery. Again, I am shocked but pleasantly so. They tell me, however, that they refuse to test the car and be absolutely certain if its fixed until I put a tire on it. Weird... the tires are two years old with 90k treadlife and were in great shape when I left them there. Okay fine.

They mount a tire and tell me to come get it it's fixed. All of this came to about 750$... which I was not pleased with. Regardless, I am not a rich man, so I had to save for a few months and drive my other car to get the bill paid on this one. And basically every week they send me the electronic invoice on my phone to remind me to pay... and every single time they would add something new that "needs to be taken care of" to that list. Okay, I see where this is going. Mind you this is after they were supposed to have already done their full inspection... somehow new things keep being found. After sitting for a few months I get the bill paid, car starts and runs great, no issues as far as I could tell. Well, except for the fact that all of the tires except the brand new one literally appeared slashed?? As in, obvious exterior sidewall damage that was not there to my memory when I left it there.

Whatever. I am sure somehow that's "my fault" but they held air and so I just moved on.

So, it's been about three months since I bailed it out from them and it has been great.

On the way to work this morning, the radio decides to shut off and tell me "low battery voltage" and would not power back on. Strange. Then, my traction light comes on solid. Then ABS starts blinking. At this point I know something is wrong and throw on flashers get in the slow lane.

Then the radio clicks like mad... and the entire interior electronic system begins to blink on and off. Tach no tach ... speedo no speedo ... interior lights and windows ... no lights no windows... Everything shuts off at one point as I am crossing a two lane highway except the motor itself and I am genuinely scared. Luckily I manage to limp it to work. The key point here is I never once got a battery light on the dash. Or that 'low voltage" warning on the dash I keep hearing everyone talk about. Only the radio screen.

At lunch time I go to turn the car over and it starts right up and runs beautifully. Me and a couple co workers were just looking it over checking obvious things and no issues are seen at all. The alternator belt is right I put it on myself a couple years back when I did water pump... The connectors all look solid. The positive lead from the alternator is clean. The battery connections are covered in green corrosion but I have seen much worse. But everything looks secure and right.

Then, I shut the hood and get in the car. At that moment all my lights in the car shut off, and we are basically all motor again. But the car is still running beautifully. So I was going to run to autozone to get the alternator tested... when I realize the neutral safety switch is not engaging. The shifter will not for any reason come out of park. And, the only light blinking on the dash is the security system light with the lock and key.

I am totally confused... and frankly p*ssed at Ford of Columbia for so obviously turning to the parts cannon and trying to upsell me things I didn't need. They did other things that made me annoyed but I'll save it you all have heard a million times how corrupt these stealerships are.

I have the harbor freight automotive volt meter... I have the cash to pick up a few parts and I have the mechanical experience to throw my own parts cannon at it if that's what I am paying Ford 120$ an hour to do anyway. So, anybody have any ideas? Is there a troubleshooting tree for an issue like this?

I saw someone with a very similar issue set say alternator and this is the original alternator to the car... could it be that simple?

I am in for whatever testing can be done before wasting money on parts though so any ideas would be appreciated.

 

Check for water intrusion from the cowl drain. It backs up into the cabin and floods the smart junction box in the passenger footwell

 

That's a brilliant idea... had some water intrusion when the car sat at the dealer for a few months and never could find out where... and it has been storming bad this week and the issue comes right back. Imagine that. I will try to find some pictures tonight and see if I can locate where those drains are. What would I be looking for to see if the box is bad?

 

Okay I see the procedure for this. I saw a video where someone advised just pulling the rubber drains out on both sides in the front... and I did remember having water sloshing issues last year and no clue where because the top seems fine. So I saw a video where someone took the top down and ran a pressure washer in the back panel and blew the crap right out of those ones. So basically do that, then let the car dry out this weekend? It's supposed to be 80s and dry here this weekend. I guess beyond that I can only hope the water didn't do more significant damage.

 

Pull the drain plug on the firewall, engine side to let it drain. Lift up the cowl top to clean "crap" out. There should be a thread on it, very common issue for the S197. Don't try to pressure wash it out, you will only force more water into the cabin.

Knowing that you had water and heard sloshing points to the SJB as the issue of your electric problems.

Once you take care of the drain and clean the cowl (and probably should replace the cabin air filter too since the water comes through there), you need to address the SJB. Open it up and clean it, get rid of corrosion on the connections and use some dielectric grease when you reconnect. Maybe you will be safe without having to replace it.

You might want to pull up the carpet and address any water intrusion issues there as well.