I have a 97 mustang 4.6. Every now and then i will lose all electrical power to everything. my car wont turn over just barely enough power for the door ding. Then after 5 or 10 minutes i will have full power and i can run everthing and my car drives just fine. At first i thought that it might be battery terminals because they were a little worn so i replaced them and i thought i fixed the problem but now it is acting up again. I was just driving down the road and my lights my radio and my radar all shut off and then the car started trying to shut off, finally i got all the way off the gas and then it died. i checked all of my fuses took of my cables the battery was fully charged. then i steped back and my lights poped on and the car started fine i drive off perfect. 10 minutes later it did it again and i just waited and then it started. so i have no idea whats wrong... please help

 

my guess would of been the terminal too but since you fixed those, it might be the alternator going out. use a multi-tester and see how many volts its putting out

 

i got my battery and altenator checked and everthing was fine i cleaned everthing that connected to my battery and it is still doin it do you have an other suggestions?

by the way thanks for your time

 

I had something similar happen, turned out to be the battery. It even tested good but replacing it fixed the problem. Just fyi.

 

Maybe its a bad ground.

 

My 88 used to carnk slow for no reason... After a new battery and starter , relay and positive wire I found tha the bolt holding the ground wire to the block was not seating properly.

About 5 years after that the ignition swich inside the steering colum started to come apart - the tension of the wires coming into the switch was actually praying the two halves of the swtich apart. Check it out

 

It's not the battery or the alternator because you said sometimes it won't have enough power to turn over, just barely make the door ding, that's running off battery. Then you said one day you were driving it down the road and it died, that's alternator. So it's something past both of those, now that question is what. Have you done any kind of modification or work that might have involved any electrical connection or work that might have gotten wired wrong or even knocked the wiring loose to something else? Ground is a good thing to check, but where. It has to be pretty close to power source since it seems like EVERYTHING dies, engine, interior and all. I don't know these engines well enough to give you an idea where to look first though.

 

+1

 

Reminds me about the movie about the haunted car - Christine ?

 

if u got painted terminals then it could be that, because i got the red and black ones on my old celica and the paint would get on the inside touching the battery and it would do exactly what your describing