Originally Posted by robert_l_ross

Coming home last night, hit a pothole in the road and suddenly the truck seems to go into limp mode...lost all power to the aux fuse box (VHF/UHF shut down, GPS and phone cradle power died, dash cam shut down, GlowShift gauges shut down).

Initially I thought the aux fuse box relay died, but the stereo was out, and all gauges but the RPM were flat...turn signal was dim, air bag/oil pressure lights were on, blower motor went from high to barely working.

SCT was still up and I see 9volts...but no battery light on the dash!?

Made it off the road but left the engine running, checked to see if maybe a battery cable was loose...both were fine.

Tried limping it to Pep Boys while the wife called ahead to check to see if they could test the alternator on the engine and if they had one in stock.

Every time the turn signal lit, the engine strained. As we got within a mile of the shop, I couldn't accelerate from a stop and was able to barely get it off the road at an interstate on ramp. Engine was running, SCT showed 7.6volts. At 7 volts it started chugging bad and I had to shut it down.

AAA was able to get it to the shop before they closed. A jump starter was able to get it running long enough to get it into a bay. They opened at 7:30 and I'm first on the list for work.

Could it be anything other than the alternator? Why didn't I get a battery light if the alt died?

Originally Posted by Bently_Coop

Interesting, with my charging system working properly I don't see less than 13.8 even at start up.

What amperage rating is the alternator? Did you get the tow/camper package version? I have been running a Motorcraft reman for the last couple years. Warranty period just ended in November.

Which battery are you running and what is the CCA rating?

Originally Posted by LivingLarge

Broke down last night...what could it be?

Robert, do you think it's maybe because you drive a 16 year old SUV.

I think we all sometimes forget this. Just sayin...

Originally Posted by robert_l_ross

I guess what really surprised me is I've had alternators go on me before, and they always triggered a battery light before dying. This time everything died at once with zero warning. I personally have never seen that before.

Originally Posted by robert_l_ross

LOL, I wasn't surprised that it is more prone to breaking down (however this is the first time in my tenure as it's owner that it was completely non-op)...what made me question was how I lost virtually all electrics at once with no warning (I've never experienced that with any other vehicle I've owned)...and that it happened while on a particularly terrible part of Watt that was shaking the dash apart.

My concern was that somehow the vibration had messed something else up and that it wouldn't be as easy to fix as the Alternator. Someone in an earlier post mentioned a relay box on the firewall that can get corroded, etc. - that was what I was afraid had happened...something NOT alternator that I had never seen before. I basically wanted some other troubleshooting ideas in case the alternator came back as good.

Moot point now that it's fixed though.

Still looking for some recommendations on a higher-amp alternator that I can drop in to charge two batteries. I'm NOT going to get caught in this scenario again...say in a wildfire or some other deployment.

Originally Posted by hav24wheel

I had the same thing happen to me one time with my old 03 Ex. All the gauges died, radio shut off, no battery light came on, and it actually died on me when I was pulling off the interstate. It took all of maybe 2 min for it to die after the gauges went down. I don't trust that battery light at all.