Joined
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47 Posts
Somewhere the Zetec designer is laughing his ass off...
01 Focus... 115k miles. Started having surging, stalling issues after installing a brand new alternator from Rock Auto. Car would stall out at traffic lights, battery light would come on, and couldn't keep it running when at operating temperature. Researched the forum and replaced the IAC with one from Advanced Auto. While I was under the car, noticed it looked like the gulf after that oil rig exploded. Oil drippings everywhere. Replaced the valve cover gasket (again.... this makes 3 since buying the car) and noticed a coolant leak. Replaced the thermostat housing (again... 3rd one since buying the car). Started driving the car, and it feels good--- then feels like I'm dragging something. It feels like it's hesitating. Replaced the coil pack (second one since buying the car) as part of a general tune up. Install new plugs. Drive car, and drives good, then suddenly feels like Im still hesitating.
Suddenly, my driver's headlight gets REAL bright and blows out. Weird. Turn on the diagnostic and watch my battery voltage -- I'm charging at 16.9 volts!! Instead of tossing more parts at the car, send it to Ford.
Ford calls and tells me the battery cable is melted. I knew that, it's been melted. It was melted the last 2 times the car was at Ford... and they never said anything. But they seem to think it's part of the issue with the over charging.
Hold on to your hats... quote to replace the cable: $780.00!!!!! Button it up, I'm coming to get it. Get charged 125.00 for diagnosing something I already told them was f'd up... amazing.
Found the cable on Partsgeek.com for 70 bucks plus tax and shipping. It gets here in 3 days. Watch videos and read the forum to see what I need to do. I've got this.
First, I don't like how Ford has this damn thing routed. I decided to take a razor knife to my new harness and split it into 2 cables -- the positive (with the starter connector) and the negative. I tape up the cables to make them pretty. I removed that one starter bolt to get that stupid negative connector off, then reinstalled the bolt. I'm NOT going that route...
I get the old harness out without dropping the starter (hands had just enough space to get the nuts off the back) by splitting the electrical tape on the OLD harness and backfeeding it.
Getting the new cable on the back of the starter by feel only was a little frustrating, but after 20 minutes, I had it back on using just my finger tips and a 1/4 in ratchet.
So here are the changes I made... since I split the harness, and why I decided to do it this way. I re-grounded the cable directly to the head, using the hoist hook at the front of the motor. I disassembled the hook, sanded it down to shiny metal, sanded the area where the connector will now make contact with the head, and assembled with dielectric grease on everything. The other side of the cable (the eyelet that attaches under the airbox) went back into the stock location, but again, I sanded the ground point to bare metal, coated and reattached. I also decided to NOT have those two small wires attach to the battery terminal anymore, and I attached them both below the airbox as well. Pulled out the multi-meter and test -- good grounds -- CHECK!
Reassembled the car, and took it for a drive. Now i'm charging at 15.4 to 15.2 all the time, and the new terminals are not even warm to the touch.
So why split the harness and ground it somewhere other than the way it was? Because it melted doing it THEIR way. [facepalm]
The fun thing, I discovered my water pump is weaping now. Sooo now I will be installing a water pump.
Ford wanted $780.00 to install this, I did it in 3.5 hours (including going to the hardware/autoparts stores for dielectric grease and electrical tape to make my new harness pretty after cutting the factory taping job) and spent $14.99 on a long 3/8 extension from Harbor Freight (came with two others, so that's good...) to get that damn starter bolt out, $4.99 on dielectric grease, $3.99 on 3M electrical tape, and $78.00 for the harness (with shipping).
Total spent: $101.97
01 Focus... 115k miles. Started having surging, stalling issues after installing a brand new alternator from Rock Auto. Car would stall out at traffic lights, battery light would come on, and couldn't keep it running when at operating temperature. Researched the forum and replaced the IAC with one from Advanced Auto. While I was under the car, noticed it looked like the gulf after that oil rig exploded. Oil drippings everywhere. Replaced the valve cover gasket (again.... this makes 3 since buying the car) and noticed a coolant leak. Replaced the thermostat housing (again... 3rd one since buying the car). Started driving the car, and it feels good--- then feels like I'm dragging something. It feels like it's hesitating. Replaced the coil pack (second one since buying the car) as part of a general tune up. Install new plugs. Drive car, and drives good, then suddenly feels like Im still hesitating.
Suddenly, my driver's headlight gets REAL bright and blows out. Weird. Turn on the diagnostic and watch my battery voltage -- I'm charging at 16.9 volts!! Instead of tossing more parts at the car, send it to Ford.
Ford calls and tells me the battery cable is melted. I knew that, it's been melted. It was melted the last 2 times the car was at Ford... and they never said anything. But they seem to think it's part of the issue with the over charging.
Hold on to your hats... quote to replace the cable: $780.00!!!!! Button it up, I'm coming to get it. Get charged 125.00 for diagnosing something I already told them was f'd up... amazing.
Found the cable on Partsgeek.com for 70 bucks plus tax and shipping. It gets here in 3 days. Watch videos and read the forum to see what I need to do. I've got this.
First, I don't like how Ford has this damn thing routed. I decided to take a razor knife to my new harness and split it into 2 cables -- the positive (with the starter connector) and the negative. I tape up the cables to make them pretty. I removed that one starter bolt to get that stupid negative connector off, then reinstalled the bolt. I'm NOT going that route...
I get the old harness out without dropping the starter (hands had just enough space to get the nuts off the back) by splitting the electrical tape on the OLD harness and backfeeding it.
Getting the new cable on the back of the starter by feel only was a little frustrating, but after 20 minutes, I had it back on using just my finger tips and a 1/4 in ratchet.
So here are the changes I made... since I split the harness, and why I decided to do it this way. I re-grounded the cable directly to the head, using the hoist hook at the front of the motor. I disassembled the hook, sanded it down to shiny metal, sanded the area where the connector will now make contact with the head, and assembled with dielectric grease on everything. The other side of the cable (the eyelet that attaches under the airbox) went back into the stock location, but again, I sanded the ground point to bare metal, coated and reattached. I also decided to NOT have those two small wires attach to the battery terminal anymore, and I attached them both below the airbox as well. Pulled out the multi-meter and test -- good grounds -- CHECK!
Reassembled the car, and took it for a drive. Now i'm charging at 15.4 to 15.2 all the time, and the new terminals are not even warm to the touch.
So why split the harness and ground it somewhere other than the way it was? Because it melted doing it THEIR way. [facepalm]
The fun thing, I discovered my water pump is weaping now. Sooo now I will be installing a water pump.
Ford wanted $780.00 to install this, I did it in 3.5 hours (including going to the hardware/autoparts stores for dielectric grease and electrical tape to make my new harness pretty after cutting the factory taping job) and spent $14.99 on a long 3/8 extension from Harbor Freight (came with two others, so that's good...) to get that damn starter bolt out, $4.99 on dielectric grease, $3.99 on 3M electrical tape, and $78.00 for the harness (with shipping).
Total spent: $101.97