‘02 LS Severe electrical gremlin

prometheusLS

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(Quick summary: possible internal PCM Issues? Overcharging/ lights shutting off when driving)
I’ve got an ‘02 LS sport. November ‘24 my alternator died, second one I’ve put on the car since owning. then December ‘24 my battery also died. Kept getting a check charging system light after the battery was replaced but no major issues arose. Roughly 6 months after the alternator was replaced I was heading to work and the alternator died while driving and I had to run on the battery to get home. HVAC controls, message center, dash and a louder vacuum issues in the engine bay occurred. Got the alternator replaced again and it started having frequent power surges and overcharging issues. The alternator was warrantied again incase it was bad however the issues were still showing randomly. Progressively getting worse. At times at idle the battery read 16.4V. If bad enough my deck speakers, HVAC, dash, message center and even all lights on the car would black out until it I cycled the key back to accessory. No issues at all in accessory. And I the car still runs and drives fine, i was around 6k rpm doing some sporty driving heading home one day and swear I saw a flash from the front passenger engine bay and the car shut off. Pulled over and it started again fine but my odometer read “- - - -“ and speedo doesn’t work. It’ll cycle but not read. When the battery is disconnected and reconnected the odo will show the mileage it stoped recording at “174k” for roughly 2 seconds then return to “- - - -“ I’m assuming it’s internal PCM related, no visible corrosion or burn marks, all grounds were taken off and cleaned when I dropped the front subframe. any ideas? I have a new pcm on standby vin matched and programmed but I’d like to get more input. Lincoln dealer wants $650 to just install and program a key which is why I ask here first. The car is over 185k miles now and has been good to me, I just can’t pinpoint the issues. Thank yall for the help.
 
For the key. download forscan and buy an adapter for the laptop. The dealer could not program the key for me and told me it was a security module issue. I downloaded forscan and did it myself, no issues. The dealer does not know how to work on these cars anymore. Check and clean all the electrical connections and change the relay for the pcm. The relay is a common ford part and it was $7 when I bought it. Think of it as cheap insurance if it does not fix the problem. It solved my starting issue.
 
I have a significant residual fondness for my long-gone LS '02 Sport. I went through, i believe, five alternators. I had concluded that the only long lasting answer was to take the last existing faulty alternator to an almost nonexistent, local rebuilding activity and have them completely go through it. If I were to still have the car, i also think that I would rip out the entirety of the wiring and have it all custom replaced from scratch.
 As part of the process, I would also
replace the coil-on-plug ignition arrangement with an aftermarket coil-near-plug-with-smart-coils system.
 
Agree with cammerfe. We have seen this many times. Try to rebuild your OEM one because as many have posted on this thread the replacements are hit and miss. Do you still have the original unit?

Listen to SteveSC. Ford long ago abandoned the LS and I would NOT recommend you taking any LS to a Ford dealer at this late date.
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