'01 Starter works fine, want run?

[34Ford]

Well Saturday morning the wife went out to crank up the LS and she comes back and says it want start.
Anyway I go out there and the starter is spinning the motor over as usual, but want run.

Well the local Ford dealer calls and says the battery has a short in it and he will put in a replacement. WTF?

Something about these things requires a certain amount of voltage to the motor or it want run. Seems like he said 8v or something.
All I know is after all these years of working on my own cars this is a first. But for some reason it made sense. Cause if I remember the positive post on the battery had several cables hooked up.
I dunno. We'll see.

[shorod]

A short in the battery would cause it to self discharge (or possibly explode!). An open would cause the battery voltage to drop. If one cell is open, the voltage would drop by approximately 2 volts.

Yes, the PCM does require a minimum voltage to operate, IIRC it's around 10 Vdc. At that voltage, you'd likely notice a slower than normal starter speed.

I'm not saying the dealer's wrong, but maybe there's more to the situation than they are letting on to (bad fuse, bad relay, etc.). However, with the exception of a bad fuse, just about any other problem would be more expensive in labor to repair/replace than the battery.

Hopefully the "battery" will take car of your starting issues and you wife will be able to enjoy her LS again!

-Rod

[34Ford]

Originally Posted by shorod

A short in the battery would cause it to self discharge (or possibly explode!). An open would cause the battery voltage to drop. If one cell is open, the voltage would drop by approximately 2 volts.

Yes, the PCM does require a minimum voltage to operate, IIRC it's around 10 Vdc. At that voltage, you'd likely notice a slower than normal starter speed.

I'm not saying the dealer's wrong, but maybe there's more to the situation than they are letting on to (bad fuse, bad relay, etc.). However, with the exception of a bad fuse, just about any other problem would be more expensive in labor to repair/replace than the battery.

Hopefully the "battery" will take car of your starting issues and you wife will be able to enjoy her LS again!

-Rod

Well so far so good. But I still dont see how it wouldn't start since the starter was spinning her over like normal. No noticable reduction in speed that I could tell.

Anyway I found out from a co-worker here that he was at a friends house trying to sart one of the new T-Birds and it wouldn't run.
Well the owner told him to stop and charge the battery then it would run.
And get this, the LS's and the T-Birds use the same battery.

Now I gotta figure out where the water is coming into the trunk.

Dennis

[shorod]

Isn't the new T-bird based on the LS, and use the same V-8 that is available in the LS?

I'm baffled as to why the starter will spin at normal speed but yet not allow the car to start due to low voltage. Do they use a gear reduction starter in these?

-Rod

[thoot12]

Sounds like my problem...Did the battery change fix it?

[thoot12]

Appears to indeed be a dieing battery...

[34Ford]

Yep, its been running fine since the battery change. Wished I had saved that battery though.


You sure couldn't tell it had a short by cranking the starter.