voltage regulator?
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Senior User
Joined: Apr 2006
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From: Santa Barbara and Ottawa
voltage regulator?
Battery light has taken to coming on when engine is cold.
Volts at battery 12.5 engine off, cold outside
Start engine, get battery light
Volts at battery 14.78, ~ 4 amps
About a 1.5 minutes of idling and the battery light goes off:
Volts at battery 14.5, ~3.5 amps
Seems to stay at about 14.5 v, 3.5 A once it is warmed up, but I've only just started metering.
No idea how old the battery is, or if it is the original alternator, PO didn't have any of that.
It's not throwing any codes.
Volts at battery 12.5 engine off, cold outside
Start engine, get battery light
Volts at battery 14.78, ~ 4 amps
About a 1.5 minutes of idling and the battery light goes off:
Volts at battery 14.5, ~3.5 amps
Seems to stay at about 14.5 v, 3.5 A once it is warmed up, but I've only just started metering.
No idea how old the battery is, or if it is the original alternator, PO didn't have any of that.
It's not throwing any codes.
Last edited by triskadek; Nov 4, 2009 at 10:37 AM. Reason: for what it's worth
Elder User
Joined: Jan 2006
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I have a 2002 and my battery light has been on for 6 months and my alternator output is OK just like yours. I've stopped worrying about it. Here is the weird part, when I take a sharp left hand turn up a steep hill about a 1/4 mile from my house and give it a lot of throttle the light will almost always go out - for a couple of minutes. An electical gremlin if there ever was one.
Posting Guru
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 1,534
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From: Warren, MI
I put a fairly good Midtronics battery tester on a friend's '04 Ford Taurus that shows a Check Battery message or something. It tests the battery and with prompts, guides one through alternator test at idle, raised idle and with a load. The Taurus passed all tests. I found a TSB for the issue and the fix is a PCM update which nobody except a dealer can do of course!
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Joined: Nov 2008
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Had this same issue on a Ford Contour that I once owned. If you battery is ok then take some elec parts cleaner or brake parts cleaner and flush the alternator with it. When I did this it solved the problem. Seemed to get full of dust and brush shavings and allowed better contact. I also cleaned all battery and alternator connections where they appeared ok or not.
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Senior User
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 311
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From: Santa Barbara and Ottawa
They did stick the alternator pretty darn low. When I went looking for it, the first thing that came to mind was "wow that's gonna get full of crud and easily get wet in the creek crossings"
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