 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
Car Forum / Ford / Ford Cars / March 2005Chugging 1995 Aerostar
Well, I was given my father?s old ride, a 1995 Ford Aerostar that?s in pretty good shape with about 127k miles on it, 4 Wheel Drive, and the 3.5L engine. Today, as I was driving home from school (which is a good 8 or 10 miles from home) everything was going well, or so it seemed, until I turned on to my home road (about a mile from my house). As I turned down the road I noticed that the sound from the engine seemed to be higher pitched. Not like whistling or anything, but just not it?s regular hum. About 30 feet down the road it started to like chug when my speedometer got to about 25-30 MPH...I looked at the panel to see that the check engine light didn?t just come on, but it was sort of flickering along with the chugging of the engine. I pulled over as soon as this started, but being so close to home, I wanted to just make it the rest of the way. So I did, pretty much just riding along the side of the road with my signal light on at about 20 MPH or less. When I got to my house I checked out the oil and the antifreeze, and both were a little low, so I fixed that. I started it up and tried to see if I could make it to the store down the street. I pulled to the end of my driveway and in that little distance, I noticed it chuged once again, and decided not to risk it. I was just wondering, what kind of problem could this potentially be? Up until I turned down my road the thing was running fine going about 60 MPH. My battery has been going dead a lot lately, and I?ve been using one of those portable rechargeable power packs to get it started until I can get a new battery, could that be a problem? Any help woul dbe appreciated... > Any help woul dbe appreciated... The bad battery is pulling most of the current from the electrical system. By running it with a bad battery you probably also overworked the alternator and damaged it. Replace the battery immediately and have the charging system checked. Tom > > Any help woul dbe appreciated... > [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > system checked. > Tom Ok...so the fact that that battery is pretty much dead would cause me to have such problems? I know that sometimes it will hold charge (so the alternator must be good, I assume) while other times it won?t. Sometimes I could drive to a store, go inside for 3 hours, come out and it would start right up, while other times EVERYTHING is dead, even the dome light. I?ve been meaning to get a new battery anyway...so this should fix the problem? EDIT: Oh...and I?ve been reading some websites about the alternator as well (since I?m not really a tech guy). They?re telling me that if the battery?s dead, and the alternator?s not working, I?ll experience these types of problems. Just to be safe, should I get a new battery and replace the alternator? (This shouldn?t be too big of a problem, because my father owns another Aerostar with virtually all the same parts that I believe blew a head gasket and is just there to take parts out of). You might have a bad alternator. That would cause the low battery and also make the whine. I lost one once while driving home, not only did it howl like crazy, it also smelled awful. It's hard to mistake the smell of burning wiring. On the same car, I found I could tell when the battery was failing before it died because the engine ran like hell. Most auto parts stores will check the alternator and the battery for you if you take them in. Of course, the chugging problem might be totally unrelated to the battery problem. Just my 2 cents. Paul > Well, I was given my father's old ride, a 1995 Ford Aerostar that's in > pretty good shape with about 127k miles on it, 4 Wheel Drive, and the [quoted text clipped - 25 lines] > > Any help woul dbe appreciated... > You might have a bad alternator. That would cause the low > battery and also [quoted text clipped - 75 lines] > abuse: > > http://www.autoforumz.com/eform.php?p=493172 Well, after I posted that last bit a little while ago, I continued to read the website that I was on. It talked about how if you take a voltmeter to the cable connections on the battery while it?s running, and you get around 14 or 14.5 DC Volts (and not less) then you probably don?t have an alternator problem. Well, since I had a votlmeter laying around, I tried that out and had about 14.7 Volts, so I assume the alternator is ok. Even though the alternator seems ok, could the bad battery be causing my problem, or is it something more serious? > > You might have a bad alternator. That would cause the low > > battery and also [quoted text clipped - 85 lines] > could the bad battery be causing my problem, or is it something more > serious? You know you have a bad battery. Replacde the battery and see if everything is fine. Jeff > > You might have a bad alternator. That would cause the low > > battery and also [quoted text clipped - 91 lines] > could the bad battery be causing my problem, or is it something more > serious? Ok, you know the battery is toast, replace it and see what happens. The have the alternator tested.You have to do this before you do anything else. It is possible to get 14 volts from a bad alternator. The current capacity can still be low.You also need to check, clean and tighten all of the battery cable connections and the connections on the starter. Until you replace the battery you're just pissing into the wind. > > > You might have a bad alternator. That would cause > the low [quoted text clipped - 147 lines] > you're just pissing into the > wind. Well what do you know...got the battery replaced (it was still under warranty, thank you Sams Club) and everything?s running great. I never knew that having a dead battery would cause the engine to mess up. Definitely a learning experience for this kid...thank you guys... thirdchildikari wrote:> > Well what do you know...got the battery replaced (it was still under > warranty, thank you Sams Club) and everything’s running great. I never > knew that having a dead battery would cause the engine to mess up. > Definitely a learning experience for this kid...thank you guys... Great. Is that battery from Sams Club a Champion brand? If so, keep the receipt handy. Those have to be the lousiest batteries I've ever seen. I thought they were a pretty good deal at first. I had them in 3 cars, 1 pickup, and a garden tractor. They ALL failed in a litle more than a year and had to be replaced. After getting 2 replaced under warranty, I gave up and bought different ones. Yeah, they were still under warranty but...... I know other people who have had the same luck. To be fair, I've also seen a few outlast the warranty period, but I'll never take the chance again. Tom > thirdchildikari wrote:> > > [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] > again. > Tom No...it?s not Champion...some Nascar XLT dealie...it was my own fault for letting the last one go dead. I have a Sirius Satellite Radio (the kind that suction cups to your windshield). And I just turned it off the unit by the button on the front, not knowing that while it was still plugged in to the cigarette lighter thing, it was drawing out power. I should be good from now on... |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2008 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.