Ford Enthusiast

[db35162]

I have a 99 windstar 3.8. The exact symptoms happened to me, no wipper , no turn signals, no radio, airbag light comming on, ABS light coming on, no blower motor and the worst, no power when you give it gas. I just bought the the largest battery that you can get for the van 1.5 years ago, so I pulled the battery terminals and cleaned (which was filthy) and pulled the caps to the battery and check the level of the cells, they were a little low but all plates were still submerged, filled them up with distilled water and put my charger on it at a 10 amp charge with the battery disconnected from from the van, and the meter stayed at 10 amps after 4 hours and the charger was not cycling (turning on and off from 10 amps to 2 amps) like it should if the battery was getting charged. I then was afraid to leave the charger at 10 amps any longer and switched to a trickle charge which is at 2 amps and let it charge over night. I was so sure I had a shorted cell in the battery that I got up during the night (6 hr's) to see if I was boilng out the acid of the battery. The meter of the charger was only giving 1.5 amps at that time, no boiling and the battery was cool to the touch. With the meter giving less amps to the battery I thought it was finnally getting a charge. I let it charge 12 more hr's on trickle and the meter was reading right around 1 amp and I switched the charger back to 10 amp charge rate for 2 hr's and now the meter was at 5.5 to 6 amps constant ( the charger should have started cycling if there wasn't a problem with the battery ). I took it right back to the place I bought it (every thing was working fine now) and they tested it and gave me a brand new battery at no cost ( I paid $69 for the battery 1.5 yr's ago, 3 year no cost to me and 10 year all together warrenty). I thought I had me a bad battery and to add to the problem dirty connections. There was no problems for a week and a half then they came back. I got out the hayne's and did the altenator check and it failed. I can tell you this, every other vehicle I ever had, at least the altenator or battery light came on, not this vehicle, take heed. It has been over 3 months with no problems with the charging system, I can say that have never replaced a altenator in 15 minutes like this one (very easy).