It's not for my Focus, but someone I know. They have an 06 ZTW, and the "Battery light" will come on intermittently. He has checked the battery and the alternator and both are good. A couple of mechanics at his work have looked, but everything seems okay. All the connections seem okay. Any ideas?
torque down battery post and see what happens..
The battery and/or the alternator are giving up the ghost. This can often be a chicken-and-egg scenario, where if you leave it too long the failing component will damage the other one.
When they checked, did they do a voltage test with the engine running, or just check the connections? If you've got the Ford manual, there us pretty thorough troubleshooting procedure for this that should get to the root cause of the problem.
oldeguy,Mar 18 2009, 11:20 AM Wrote:It's not for my Focus, but someone I know. They have an 06 ZTW, and the "Battery light" will come on intermittently. He has checked the battery and the alternator and both are good. A couple of mechanics at his work have looked, but everything seems okay. All the connections seem okay. Any ideas?
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Define "good" - I had intermittent starting problems with my wife's ZTW last year and 2 mechanics said the battery was "good" - but apparently even a battery that shows 12 volts can be next to dead - I replaced the battery and it fixed the problem.
ZTWsquared,Mar 18 2009, 06:50 PM Wrote:oldeguy,Mar 18 2009, 11:20 AM Wrote:It's not for my Focus, but someone I know. They have an 06 ZTW, and the "Battery light"ÃÂ will come on intermittently. He has checked the battery and the alternator and both are good. A couple of mechanics at his work have looked, but everything seems okay. All the connections seem okay. Any ideas?
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Define "good" - I had intermittent starting problems with my wife's ZTW last year and 2 mechanics said the battery was "good" - but apparently even a battery that shows 12 volts can be next to dead - I replaced the battery and it fixed the problem.
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I agree, a failing battery can show 12V but can have little to no amps. Take the battery out have it charged and then have a load test done. CTC should be able to do that. I believe there might be a charge for the test but would be credited if a new battery is purchased.
The guy has bought a new battery and had the alternator tested at an alternator shop. Are the 05-07 as "good" as the 00-04's for bad grounds etc.?
I have an 2005.4 and Mine is good no probs with grounds just a clean engine bay. Maybe the new ones are different?
I did smoke a yellow top 1000CCA when my alternator went but I didn't get a battery light on the dash. I had to get a bigger alternator and a new bat, also had to changed the idle on the car to allow the bigger alternator to give the right amount of electricity when stopped while having the lights, heat/ac, and stereo on.
oldeguy,Mar 19 2009, 08:11 AM Wrote:The guy has bought a new battery and had the alternator tested at an alternator shop. Are the 05-07 as "good" as the 00-04's for bad grounds etc.?
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From what I recall they still recommend that you did "the big three" on the 05-07's to upgrade the grounds.
I had the same issue of intermittent battery light (and ABS and TC light) alternator was fine it was the battery going south (held a charge just fine but was outgassing like mad, sure sign of imminent death) replaced that and the car ran like a top until the end.
NefCanuck
I had something similar happen to me a while back but it tured out (in my case) it was one of the wires came out of the harness where it pluged into the altenator it self, how that happned I have no idea, but it was replaced under warntee, but again that was my situation
could also be ac compressor.... happened to a friend of mine