If not the alternator what could it be

Asked by Sonja Feb 15, 2021 at 02:18 PM about the 2007 Ford Five Hundred Limited AWD

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

Ok driving down three days ago the radio starts
blinking on and off the ABS light and the traction
control light comes on my car dies. Jumped it off
made it a couple more miles down the road ABS light
comes on traction control light comes on car dies.
So get the car home my son says take the battery to
have it tested took it two different places to have it
tested Dad cell got a new battery put it in, all the
while thinking it's an alternator issue, but my son
checked the voltage and everything on alternator it's
fine. So I have the new battery in drive the car 25-30
miles no issue. that was during the day didn't have
headlights or heat or radio or nothing running on it.
Coming home that night lo and behold ABS light
traction control light comes on car dies I coast into a
parking lot wait about 10 minutes Crank It up and I'm
able to get it parked. It was late it was dark full with it
in the morning come back the next morning pick the
car up thinking I'm really going to have to have it
towed car cranks right up drive it home that's another
20 mi no problem. I don't get where the problem
could be all the voltage coming off of alternator and
the battery of course it's brand new battery are great.
The only lights coming on are the ABS and the
traction control light when this happens the battery
light's not coming on or staying on nothing like that.
and like I said it done fine both times I've driven it
during the day with no headlights no radio going
nothing it's done fine. Could that still be the
alternator or what else should I check.

3 Answers

We put a new alternator on it got everything put back together finally. And as I said before there was no battery light on, nothing like that when it went out. I just drove it down the road and back to see if it's going to run now the battery light and check charging system message is coming on? Is it just because I need to drive it for so long to reset the computer or could there be another problem. If there is another problem I think I might just shoot it. When I drove it and it ran fine but I didn't have the radio on or the air conditioner or nothing like that for the first run down the road and back and it's starting up every time just fine now. I'm just confused as to why that stuff didn't come on before but now it is.

Well we found the glitch. Are you ready to laugh? They didn't plug it in. They hooked the ground up to the alternator but that's it. Last night I found myself broke down again and pissed and then I just got to thinking about the people that was working on my car and I thought they couldn't have been that dumb. Crawled under it sure enough that's what it was so it's running great now. no bells and whistles. let me give props to my son he's never done any mechanic work like that before and his teachers (aka dad and uncles) were slacking just a little bit

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