Anger! Grrrr!

thaywood

thaywood

Dedicated LVC Member
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Okay, my '97 LSC has been running fabulously...until yesterday:( Out of the blue, it started missing. As soon as it started, the ABS light came on. Then the "Check Traction Control" warning came up on the display. Then the CEL started flashing and then stayed on. The whole time, the car felt like it was running on 3 cylinders. Unfortunately, I had to drive it 40 miles home from work like that. On the way home, I noticed that if I turned O/D off and kept the RPM's above 2500, it ran relatively smooth. Anything under 2500 and it spit and sputtered like it was going to knock off. There was also a definite "rotten eggs boiling in sulfur" smell similar to what it smelled like before I had the 3rd cat removed. I limped it home and parked it last night and started it back up this morning in the hopes that it may have "fixed" itself:rolleyes: No dice. Still missing like crazy. I need to pull the codes, but I'm afraid to drive it 20 miles to Auto Zone to check it. And I don't have a code reader, nor can I afford one. I'm going to go out and pull a couple of the coils out and see if they're cracked or deteriorated later if it stops raining. Anyone else had this particular set of problems before? I find it odd that the ABS, T/C, and CEL all came on at the same time. Makes me think they all may be relating to the cause of the problem. I did turn the T/C off just to see if it made a difference. It didn't. Anyone got any suggestions? Thanks.
 
yep. alternator is dying and you are running out of, or have unclean, power.
have the charging system checked.
you probably lost a voltage regulator.
yes, it can be that sudden.
no, a bad alternator does not mean a dead battery, but it will eventually.
the rotten egg smell is from the misfire dumping raw fuel into the cats.

autozone or similar can check the alt. is easy enough to remove and have tested.
 
pull the battery cables off the batt and give them a good cleaning, see if that helps

i lost my trip minder all electronics, car died, and wouldnt start...after having it towed to a friends shop and checking everything out...turns out it was just the battery cables. :rolleyes:
 
I figured it would be something like that. I'll clean the terminals and see if that works. If not, I'll get the alt checked. This sucks horribly. Last time I checked, a new alt is a couple hundred bucks:( She may be sitting a while.
 
i have rebuilt mine for like 25 bucks. the parts are cheap.
find a shop in town that does work like that. the one local to me rebuilds starters and alternators. alot cheaper than a new alt.
 
chris2523 said:
i have rebuilt mine for like 25 bucks. the parts are cheap.
find a shop in town that does work like that. the one local to me rebuilds starters and alternators. alot cheaper than a new alt.
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Thanks. That's a good idea. I just cleaned the terminals. No dice again. Still running like junk. I'll have to call around and see if there's a shop anywhere around here that rebuilds them. I knew it would happen eventually. The alt went out on my '96 with about 80k on it. This one's got 192k right now. So it's about time...
 
I wouldn't throw an alternator at it just yet... If the car starts up on its own power, its at least charging. I'd throw a volt meter on the battery with the car running and see what its at. My first Mark had a bad cell, and would not start under its own power, it had to be jumped. But once it was running, since it was down a cell, the battery was at like 10.4 volts, I think, and made all of the lights come on, but the car ran relatively smooth. IF your battery is okay, you can start the car up with the alternator power wire unplugged to see if it runs any different. I would check all of your fuses. Did you wash the engine or anything? I'd try this, get another car and hook it up like you were going to jump start it, see how your car runs while its hooked up to the other car for power.
 
O that's nothing. I've had my check engine light come on my 2011 f-150 with 11xxx two different times but then it would turn off the next day. But no missing.
 
Whats 11xxx? Mileage?

Take it in. cels don't pop on just because they like to.
 
My money is on bad voltage reg. Seen it happen many times on a Mark and the symptoms are almost always as OP described.
 
I wouldn't be too surprised either if it was the alternator/voltage regulator. I was driving my parents' 96 LSC one night years ago and the alternator went out on me. One minute, I'm driving along just fine, and the next, all hell is breaking loose. I remember the digital display went black, the radio and the climate control went nuts, and lights were flashing all over the dash. I don't remember if I had any problems with the engine acting up or not. Luckily, I was close enough that I could limp home in it before it lost all power.
 
$30 for a regulator is not pricey. My local autozone priced a regulator for my 96 at $85. I went to a place called scott automotive and marine electric. He installed a new rear bearing, into a new rear housing. Complete with stator and rectifier. Also installed a new regulator. All for $100 out the door.
 
*Maverick* said:
I wouldn't be too surprised either if it was the alternator/voltage regulator. I was driving my parents' 96 LSC one night years ago and the alternator went out on me. One minute, I'm driving along just fine, and the next, all hell is breaking loose. I remember the digital display went black, the radio and the climate control went nuts, and lights were flashing all over the dash. I don't remember if I had any problems with the engine acting up or not. Luckily, I was close enough that I could limp home in it before it lost all power.
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That's exactly what happened to my '96 back in 2002. I was driving through town on my way home one night and it just went nuts. Headlights started dimming, dash lights dimmed, all the warning lights were flashing, radio died, climate control went haywire, and finally the whole car just quit. Luckily, it died right in front of the local Ford stealership and I coasted it into the parking lot. Got a ride home with a cop, believe it or not, and called the Ford place the next morning and they put a new alt in it. Cost me over $300 bucks:eek: That's why I don't take my cars to dealerships to be worked on unless it's something I can't do myself.
 
thaywood said:
That's exactly what happened to my '96 back in 2002. I was driving through town on my way home one night and it just went nuts. Headlights started dimming, dash lights dimmed, all the warning lights were flashing, radio died, climate control went haywire, and finally the whole car just quit. Luckily, it died right in front of the local Ford stealership and I coasted it into the parking lot. Got a ride home with a cop, believe it or not, and called the Ford place the next morning and they put a new alt in it. Cost me over $300 bucks:eek: That's why I don't take my cars to dealerships to be worked on unless it's something I can't do myself.
Click to expand...

I know what you mean about dealerships. The last time my parents took their '96 LSC to the dealership for a problem, they decided it was the coil packs and replaced ONE of the two coil packs and charged $500 (and if I remember correctly, that was just for the part, not counting the labor- either way, it only takes about 5 minutes to replace one of those things). I used to take my '93 to the Ford dealership for some things and it was always an ordeal. Either they didn't fix the problem or it was a huge bill (or both).

But the best one was when my parents took their LSC just to have a new seal put around the sunroof. Took them FOREVER to get it done, and then it wouldn't seal right. The service manager told them to let it sit out in the sun a few days and it would work itself out. It didn't get any better, so my parents took the car back and after a couple days, the car was "fixed" again. This time when my mom went to pick the car up, one of the techs had left the passenger window down and it had rained all in the interior (there's still stains in the car from that). A couple days after that, my parents called me asking if I could come try to get their sunroof shut because they couldn't. Turns out, it would only go halfway shut, and after that, you could just hear the gears grinding. By this point, the dealership they had been taking it to had gone out of business. Luckily, we were able to figure out the guy who owned that dealership owned another Ford dealership, but it was about 75 miles away and that the service manager from the dealership we'd been dealing with was now the service manager at the other dealership, so my parents called them (by this point they were furious and demanding that they fix the damage they'd caused), so the service manager agreed to have somebody meet us at the old dealership and they would send out a rollback to pick the car up and take it to the other dealership and then send it back when the car was done. So after about a week and a half, they got the car back again, and it STILL wasn't right. It did the same thing it had done before when the sunroof stopped halfway closed, but luckily this time we were able to get it shut. This time, my dad took the car to another Ford dealer who refused to touch the car after hearing about what the other dealership had done, but they did put him in touch with an auto-glass specialist who did sunroofs. So my dad got back in touch with the Ford dealership (the new dealership now) who had messed it up in the first place and told them what he was going to do, and they refused to reimburse him for taking it to the sunroof specialist, but offered to try again to fix it themselves. My parents finally got them to pay for the repairs by threatening to go to Ford Motor Company with the complaint. Turned out the sunroof guy had to get a complete sunroof assembly (motor, tracks, glass, etc.) out of a junkyard Mark VIII to fix everything (and it still doesn't work 100% like it's supposed to, but at least it works now). All that just for taking the car to the dealership to have the sunroof seal replaced.
 
Okay. Now I'm even more pi$$ed. I took the alt off and had it checked out. It's putting out 14.8 volts. So it's good. That pretty much eliminates the alternator as the problem. So now what? I know the ABS and TC warnings came on when the skipping started. And when it starts skipping, it runs exactly like it does when the TC is operating and there's a lot of wheels slippage. I don't have a scan tool and can't afford to buy one right now, so I guess I'll have to try to limp it to Adv or AZ and pull the codes. I'm going out to pull out a couple of coils to see how they look. Maybe that will be the problem. I'm just not a happy camper.
 
The voltage regulator may still be the problem. Not sure how you test them, but they do go out randomly. A coil pack shouldn't be throwing the ABS light on.
 
Have you tried seeing how the car reacts when the alternator is disconnected? Run it straight off the battery , IMO (just don't drive anywhere!)
 
I think I may have found the problem...or at least part of it. I started pulling coils and found two that have a bunch of cracks in them. The ones that are cracked are the only ones that still have Motorcraft stickers on them. So I think they are original. One has a huge "c" shaped crack from the plug to the boot. The others are hairline cracks on the sides of the coils. Next payday I'm going to get a new set of coils. No telling how old the others are.
 
I have the same issue. Started yesterday ran fine to work today. On the way home i lose the hvac abs airbag and charge light comes on and a half mile later on a slight uphill it starts missing and by the time i get to my steep driveway it doesnt have the umph to get up it.
Now i knew my alt was bad but it seems to come and go so ive been risking it for about a year now.....knee this day was coming. I guess i will check the coils as well.
 
I sure hope the coils are my problem. I pulled all of them out after my last post and found 5 that had cracks in them. 3 were original Motorcraft coils and the other two were aftermarket. I'm going to replace all of them just to be safe. Unfortunately, this means the car will be down for the count until the end of the month. And if new coils don't fix the problem, then I'll be really miffed. But I've got a pretty good feeling that the cracked coils are the root of the problem. Before I bought the car, it had a miss. The seller put a new coil in the #1 cylinder and the miss stopped. The old coil had several cracks in it causing the miss. So, I'm confident that this is going to fix it.
 
Since the car is down anyway, i would pull the Alt (takes 20 mins max) and have it tested. I know my alt is the issue because I just pulled it this morning before work and the pullet has a lot of resistance to spinning. I have tested it in the past and found it to be bad but it seemed to work for so long I kind of just forgot about it. Im takinf it to work today (O'Reilly Auto Parts)and Ill get it tested along with charging the battery. I'll post all results just to help others diagnose in the future.

My symptoms also included excess noise through the radio from the air compressor, a loud "thump" when first started like an amp with bad ground makes, distorted warning beep and eventually losing all dash illumination when pressing the brake pedal, Of course this was accompanied by the abs, airbag, charging light, dash info center warnings and no headlights on the late night ride home on the winding rainy road in the woods to my house last night (that was a bucket of fun)
 
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