freefallpat

Something strange is going on. I came back from work today and 5 minutes after I started my car, a low battery message showed up on my shaker. Here is the sequence of events.

- 2 minutes later: the radio shuts down….
- 4 minutes later: The ABS light comes on. Can’t turn the radio back on.
- 2 minutes later: The battery light comes on for 10 secs and goes out.
- 6 minutes later: The Air Bag light comes on.
- 10 minutes later: The whole car goes dead electrically. I mean nothing works. The lights go off. The engine works great and the car keep running.
- 5 minutes later: While driving the car thinking it was going to die for sure, everything pops back on again like nothing happened.


I get home 5 minutes later and shut down the car. It start back up great.

What the hell is wrong with my car?!?1?

06_tungsten_gt

You dont happen to have one of those ipod2car adapters or anything do you? I had one in my previous pickup and it killed everything, but ran fine with no gauges....though the shop could only get it to replicate it when i wasnt there. coincidence or usual shop 'help' to make me pay for it....
Doubt that helps much though lol
~Josh~

hammeron

best guesses...
alternator output
12vdc regulator
dirty/corroded (ground) somewhere

hope you find the prob, wouldn't want you to have
any issues while out on the interstate...

DuFFMaNN

No night time driving until you get it fixed

saltzy

Except for the part where everything comes back on great after a few minutes, those are the exact symptoms I had the two times my alternator died in my Expedition. The last thing to go was the motor, thanks to the little electrical charge left in the battery making the fuel pump go.

Yeah, I'd have to agree with above--either a flukey alt., or a completely loose battery ground. Unless you're driving in 3 feet of seawater daily, it's hard to imagine corrosion on that new of a car bad enough to create a short in the ground.

FredTT

First thing that came to my mind was a loose ground. Check your terminals and make sure eveything is tight and secure. Your still under warrenty, so take it to Ford.

~Fred

rodman2097

Just a guess, but my 01 F150 would do weird elecrical tricks if the ingition switch was not right in the notch. I.e. Start the car and the switch sticks and is rotated too far clockwise, not enough to keep the starter solenoid engaged, but just enough....Windows, radio, etc. would be screwed up.

Check the ignition switch.

freefallpat

Thanks for the info guys,

I'm not sure if taking it to the dealer will do anything. The problem completely went away after everything came back on.
Here is what I’m thinking. The car ran great even after all the electrical stuff died. I had an alternator go on my previous car and the ignition went to crap a few minutes before it died. The battery wasn't dead because I got home a few minutes later after everything popped back on again. The battery checked fine when I tested it.

I think this problem might have happened before. I couple of friend (GM guys) came over so I went to start it up and everything was dead. The only thing that came on was the little red safety alarm light. I figured the battery was dead so I put another one in there and it did the same thing. I put the original back in and everything came back on again.

I'm starting to agree that it's either the ignition switch or one the battery cables....

Would the alternator going bad screw up my ignition? I mean the car ran great the whole time...

Thanks

Patrick

BoidMorphs

Even if the dealer can't find the cause, you still want what happened documented in FORD's computer system in case something else happens in the future. Definitely take it to the dealer.

Warlok

Im just sorry as hell you had to go through all this. But I would take it to the dealer my self. In no way can this give a man much confidence in his new car. I would be freaking out, but im old. I hope its something simple, and FREE.