2003 electrical problems

2003 taurus se 74k

This is a long one so please bear with me

I was getting ready to go to work one morning when I noticed the window seemed a bit slow to wind down but I didnt pay too much attention to it. As i was driving down the motorway my ABS light came on followed by the Battery light. I continued to go down towards my office and eventually the aribag light came on / lost the tach and speedo and theft light was on and off. When I got to my exit I was fortunate to go through the first traffic light but the next I had to stop. The engine wasnt too happy so I put it in neutral and braked left footed with my right still on the throttle. When the light changed and I slapped it into gear (rather like a drag race launch) all the lights went out and the car seemed ok again. As I was near the local ford dealer I figured I'd drop it in for a check.

They tested the alternator - putting out 14 amps and the battery was tested fine. I went back to the dealer and they said they couldnt find anything wrong so I paid and went home. It drove fine over the weekend. I started it up on monday and it seemed ok but I thought to myself the lights on the dash seemed a bit dim. No sooner had I noticed that then the ABS light came on followed by all the rest of the above mentioned symptoms. This time I was less than half way to work so I turned around and went home spluttering the whole way back. I was one turn away form my house when all the lights turned off again and it seemed fine.

Has anyone here had or know of a similar situation? I'm already out $100 from the first diagnostic check and I really cant afford to keep paying out only to be told they cant find anything wrong.

Thanks

2003 taurus se 74k

This is a long one so please bear with me

I was getting ready to go to work one morning when I noticed the window seemed a bit slow to wind down but I didnt pay too much attention to it. As i was driving down the motorway my ABS light came on followed by the Battery light. I continued to go down towards my office and eventually the aribag light came on / lost the tach and speedo and theft light was on and off. When I got to my exit I was fortunate to go through the first traffic light but the next I had to stop. The engine wasnt too happy so I put it in neutral and braked left footed with my right still on the throttle. When the light changed and I slapped it into gear (rather like a drag race launch) all the lights went out and the car seemed ok again. As I was near the local ford dealer I figured I'd drop it in for a check.

They tested the alternator - putting out 14 amps and the battery was tested fine. I went back to the dealer and they said they couldnt find anything wrong so I paid and went home. It drove fine over the weekend. I started it up on monday and it seemed ok but I thought to myself the lights on the dash seemed a bit dim. No sooner had I noticed that then the ABS light came on followed by all the rest of the above mentioned symptoms. This time I was less than half way to work so I turned around and went home spluttering the whole way back. I was one turn away form my house when all the lights turned off again and it seemed fine.

Has anyone here had or know of a similar situation? I'm already out $100 from the first diagnostic check and I really cant afford to keep paying out only to be told they cant find anything wrong.

Thanks

I had a very simular situation with my 97 LeSabre. My dome lights would dim when I hit my power locks, my ABS, Brake, Check engine lights would come on together. It all came to a head when I held the power window switch too long and my engine died! I was able to start it right back up. I drove farther on and it died again. This time it wouldn't restart! However, I was able to get to my house!

To make a long story a little shorter, I found a ground near the battery that looked corroded. I took the nut off and cleaned everything up and put grease on the terminals. After that the engine fired right up! Infact the starter didn't hesatate like it did before, no more lights poping on when ever they felt like it.

I would do a couple of things. Buy a good OBDII code reader. They come with instructions. If you spend 100.00 on it it will pay for it's self the first time. and the next time it's free! Second, open your hood check every ground location you can find. Clean them up.

Let us know what you find. I usally hang in the Buick LeSabre or Ford Windstar forms. They didn't have anything new in them so I hit the Taurus.

Regards

Dan

cheers Dan,

I'll have a look under the bonnet later on when I get a chance.

That sounds like and interesting (and exciting) problem. Fortunately, I've never experienced that. However, since it sounds like you can duplicate the problem, I'd suggest rigging up a DC voltmeter to a cigarette lighter adapter so you can monitor the battery/charging system voltage when this starts to act up. The way the car begins to run, I'd suspect your battery voltage is dropping down to something like 10.3 V or less. You may want to make sure your battery cables are tight and clean too (not just clean to look at, remove them from the battery and make sure there's no corrosion between the cable and the battery terminal.

If you could get this to act up near your home after driving around the block a few times or something, I'd suggest shutting the engine off when it start to act up and see if the voltage jumps back up with the engine off. If it does, I suspect the problem is not your battery. If the voltage does not jump up with the engine off, I'd next suggest you remove the negative battery cable and then measure the battery voltage (obviously you'll have to move the meter to the battery for this). If you now have something like 12.5 Vdc across the battery, I'd suspect you have a short in the alternator.

It seems odd that if the battery is your issue, the alternator would not be able to output enough current/voltage to keep the car running, as long as your alternator really is okay. Maybe as your alternator heats up, something is shorting out internally causing your problem. Not sure why it would then come out of it though.

If the voltage on your meter connected to the cigarette light does not indicate a low voltage condition, then you probably have a problem with the voltage supply to the PCM. However, if this were the case, it shouldn't effect your power windows. Maybe that's just due to the cold weather (if it's cold where you live).

Be sure to inspect the ground connections near the battery too.

And last of all, good luck!

-Rod

What sort of dc meter mate? I have a multimeter but thats about it.

I cant replicate the problem as far as I know but I guess there were similarities on both days it happened. It was cold and I had the fan on full wack and the rear window defroster on to start with but I'd turned the fan down and the defroster was off when it started acting up.

I'm going to go down to autozone this weekend and see if I can "borrow" a ecm meter and see what the codes were. I'll also be checking all the connections I can find (all weather permitting of course)

It always seems like I end up doing car electrics during the coldest parts of the year :(

What sort of dc meter mate? I have a multimeter but thats about it.

I cant replicate the problem as far as I know but I guess there were similarities on both days it happened. It was cold and I had the fan on full wack and the rear window defroster on to start with but I'd turned the fan down and the defroster was off when it started acting up.

I'm going to go down to autozone this weekend and see if I can "borrow" a ecm meter and see what the codes were. I'll also be checking all the connections I can find (all weather permitting of course)

It always seems like I end up doing car electrics during the coldest parts of the year :(

A multimeter should have a DC mode on it.

Regards

Dan

A multimeter should have a DC meter on it. But Taurus alternator is weak anyway. I notice alot of times when driving after dark that I can dim the lights by putting on the HVAC system. The alternators really arn't sufficient for the car.

But ... if it was a bad alternator, wouldn't it just draw from the battery until the battery was flat?

Like a previous post, I suspect the alternator with the addition of the serpentine belt. You stated the Battery light came on in your initial post, thus the pointing to the charging circuit.

I once replaced an OEM dead alt with a rebuilt alt that had problems with heating up issues. The charging voltage looked good in the morning but the Battery light would come on soon after the car had some time on it. Once allowed to cool off it would charge up OK until it heated up again. Another rebuilt solved the problem.

Since the problem seems to come and go, how about the belt? Is there slipping of the belt at higher speeds that is not there at the lower speeds? Is the automatic tension adjuster beyond its working range?

Both of these problems I cited would not manifest themselves until the car had been on the road for a bit and the testing took place under the same conditions (hot alternator and higher RPMs).

Thanks for all the replies so far.

As I took it into a ford dealer to check it I can only assume they checked the obvious things like belts etc.They had it running for about 45 mins and supposedly kept checking on things without finding any problems.

It seems to me that the problem is some sort of connection issue somewhere as it has cleared up both times the problem started. I guess its just a matter of finding out what it is thats loose.

I amexperiencing the same type of electricial issue on my 03 Taurus SES. We have gotten the alternator replaced and it is still doing it. I had the battery tested at a local Checkers Autoparts and they said it looks just fine. Not sure where to go from here.

I amexperiencing the same type of electricial issue on my 03 Taurus SES. We have gotten the alternator replaced and it is still doing it. I had the battery tested at a local Checkers Autoparts and they said it looks just fine. Not sure where to go from here.

You cannot always trust the battery testers. A co-worker was having difficulty getting his car to start reliably. He took it to a Sears for a battery. They tested his and said it was fine. He asked them to load test it and they said their machine performs a load test automatically. He called me for advice and I hooked the graphing multimeter up to the battery and had him crank the engine. The battery voltage would drop to 9.71 Vdc during cranking. Using a jumper pack, the car would start up fine. We verified there was no parasitic load draining the battery and using a clamp on DC current probe verified the load with few accessories was reasonable. We also verified that the alternator was working. He bought a new Delco battery (only thing he could find in stock for his Aurora) and hasn't had a problem since.

-Rod