Hi Everyone..

First time poster.

I just installed a new alternator and battery in my ''''04 Expedition 5.4L. Alt went belly up all of sudden yesterday afternoon. Battery was original so I replaced that also. The problem is the battery light is still on although the gauge (which is rather useless) reads just above 1/2 way. I get 14.3v at the battery with a voltmeter while running so everything seems good on the charging side. I actually ran a couple hours worth of "poor mans" load tests last night with lights ac blowers etc and the voltage stayed at 14 or above during all of it. With all that stuff off it charges back up.. The light just won''''t go out.

I am told that I had a stock 110A alternator (the determining questions for all the parts stores seemed to be whether or not I had a factory Nav system, which I do not 110=no Nav, 130=Nav) What I have now may very well be a 130A, although the parts store kept making contradicting statements about the color of the regulator being black or white. They told me they only had a 110A in stock, and considering that''''s what I should have I bought it. When I got home I saw on the back a plastic tab says 130A. I was told upgrading to 130A was not a problem so I went with it.

Either I have a 100A which is what I was supposed to have in there or I have an upgrade to a 130A.

Could this cause the light to stay on or do I have another problem?

Mike

 

How long have you run it? Mine took a while to go out after I fixed everything, like probably an hour of driving. Also, although you are getting charge this probably isn't it, but I'll throw it out there, there is an alternator fuse there somewhere and mine was burned out. I wasn't getting charge though, with the fuse blown. Once I replaced it and drove around for a while, the battery light went out. If you have access to a computer to hook up, maybe it will give you a better idea. I know the Schucks auto parts around here lends them out for free.

 

Thanks for the reply. I probably have 3-4 hours on it at this point. Still on. I have a friend that has a scan tool and I can borrow that. From what I read the batt light isn't covered with the scan tools

M

 

Did you clean the cable connections? Could be that simple...

 

It could just be a bum alternator.

 

Like alloro said it could be an alternator problem it wouldn't be the first time a new alternator was bad most likely its a bad regulator within the alternator, it happened to me

 

It's even more likely an alternator problem if it's a rebuilt unit and not a brand new one. Sometime rebuilt just means new brushes, bearings, and a good cleaning.

 

Yea that why ther cheap

 

I do have an Exp with no problems. I also have a '04 Grand Marquis that had the battery light on after only 200 miles. The dealer had a rough time fixing it--new alternator (no luck), new battery (no luck), new voltage regulator (no luck), etc. etc. Finally they replaced the entire wiring harness in the front end of the car and that did fix the problem--had to remove bumper, fender, etc. That made me sick on a brand new car. Fortunately, they loaned me a Town Car for the 3 weeks they were working on the Merc. Anyway, the Merc is still OK after 50,000 miles. There is a lot of stuff that can go wrong, go wrong, go....