2002 Electrical problem

[jreed3]

I am having an odd problem(to say the least) with my 2002 Taurus. It is stalling while I am driving. All of the dash lights will come on and the speedometer and tachometer go to 0. Then if I gas it, it will resume running. This happens no matter what speed I am going...from sitting still to even 70 MPH. After it resumes running, all lights will be real dim and then eventually be back to the normal brightness. Also, I have noticed a faint squeak when it stalls so the first thing that came to my mind was the possibility of a belt slipping.

Ive had the car a couple different places and nothing seems to fix it. I thought maybe someone on here could offer some advice or had the same problem.

[NakedDancer]

The first thing I would want to know is what did those couple of diffrent places do or say about the problem? Did you check for a loose belt? A dammaged belt? More specific check the alternator belt and maybe have the altenator checked.

[jreed3]

The first place changed the plugs and wires and did something with carbuerator cleaner (whatever you use that for).

The second place they did something with the computer...they only worked on it for about an hour. Pretty much only drove it and checked something in the computer and charged me $60.

I have thought from the beginning it was something with the alternator but they seem to be looking past that.

[shorod]

Does the stalling occur when you let off the accelerator and coast, or will it stall even if you are accelerating? Check to make sure the battery cables are clean and tight. Do you have a multimeter? If so, it should be easy to connect the meter to monitor the battery voltage when this occurs. If the shop was using a decent scan tool, it should be showing the technician the system voltage on the display which would indicate a voltage problem or not. The computer will need a minimum of around 10.5 Vdc to function. Even if your alternator is bad, a decent battery should be able to maintain better than that for a short time. Since giving the car gas causes the engine to catch up, the alternator must be working (if it truly is a voltage problem). The squeak may be more of a "honk" due to intake air being expelled through the air intake system when the engine dies.

Another item to check would be the ignition module, but I'm not aware of that being a common problem on newer Fords. In the 80's on the non-distributorless ignition system cars, the modules would go bad and cause random stalling, usually preceeded by a bouncing tachometer needle.

Of course a PCM/ECU could cause this, but I would expect that the technician would have spotted some funky readings on the scan tool if that were the case. Did the stalling occur for and of the shops that looked at it?

-Rod

Originally Posted by jreed3

I am having an odd problem(to say the least) with my 2002 Taurus. It is stalling while I am driving. All of the dash lights will come on and the speedometer and tachometer go to 0. Then if I gas it, it will resume running. This happens no matter what speed I am going...from sitting still to even 70 MPH. After it resumes running, all lights will be real dim and then eventually be back to the normal brightness. Also, I have noticed a faint squeak when it stalls so the first thing that came to my mind was the possibility of a belt slipping.

Ive had the car a couple different places and nothing seems to fix it. I thought maybe someone on here could offer some advice or had the same problem.