zaghloul

My alternator died today after a very spirited highway run in which I totally kicked an STI’s ***. The battery is dead and wont start the car. Its throwing error p0340. I realize that the alternator is shot. My question is, can I jump start it and drive it 10miles to the dealer? Even though flatbedding is free it will take a few hours, and I prefer to just take it myself. Can it die on me if I don’t switch the ignition off?

Its A Six

I just had my alternator die on me about three weeks ago, but I managed to jump the car and drive it the five or so miles to the dealer. Just be carefull about your driving habits, don't rev the car too much or any of that, just cruise over. My car had a whole slate of issues wrong with it, so maybe it was just my car but I'd take it easy and cruise on over.

karman

If the battery is fully charged, you can go 10 miles no problem I think.
I once had a brand new Nissan that had never had the alternator connected.
When it died, we had driven 34 miles.

zaghloul

I went to reinstall the stock airbox so the car will be dealer ready. I noticed that there is a nice pool of water under the car. The coolant reservoir was overflowing through the cap. When everything cooled the reservoir was about 3 inches below fill level. Looking at things closer after pulling off the CAI I began to realize where the problem lies. About three weeks ago I got a Steeda UDP installed. The moron mechanic that installed it must have spilled a lot of the original coolant, and decided to top it up with water. The temperature today was 126 in the shade! So what was happening is the water was overflowing from the reservoir straight into the alternator. Once the alternator dried up the car started up fine. I don’t have error codes either (yet). Does wetting the alternator permanently damage it? Or should it be fine now that it has dried? I still have to take care of the coolant issue, and go kick that mechanics ***.

karman

It might live.
You figure, it is made to survive occasional water coming into the engine bay.

dleal00

My alternator died 1 week ago. Had it towed for free. I could have drove it, but didn't feel like taking any chances since I had the time to wait for a tow.

Stoenr

Set up a tow imo. Did he over fill it? Just adding water to the fill level should not have caused this.

Gearhead

I drove my F350 over 150 miles on the battery only. Just to run the engine, you will be drawing about 20 to 25 amps, so you should fully charge your battery first, and leave all electrical accessories off, as best you can. No lights, no fan, no radio, keep you foot off the brake, etc.

Arrow

When that happened to me, that was my initial thought...but I was proven wrong. The faulty alternator killed my battery and it just wouldn't hold a charge, and with the alternator dead I got about 5 seconds of engine before it would die.

Plus, with all the jumping and dead battery an' such, the alarm system decided the car was being stolen and gave me more carp to deal with.

There's 2 options I can think of (I'm sure others have more):

1. If you're handy with cars, take the alternator and battery out, and get someone to drive you to the dealership.

2. Call Ford roadside and flatbed it down.

zaghloul

Well I decided to take it myself, she started fine but i soon got the CEL, and i could hear the alternator whinning like a *****. I kept going slow and steady and made it there fine. Thanks for all the input.

Stoner, he may have overfilled it, but thats not the issue here. It seems like he lost quite a bit of coolant while installing the UDP, and then filled up the rest with water. Water expands to gas at a lower temperature than the coolant and basically forced about half a gallon of liquid through the cap all over the alternator while I was driving. The temperatures here are extremly hot.

topbliss

the water mixes with coolant.. It does not stay seperate. What do you think coolant is based on? yep.. water. That was not the issue. A few oz of water would not have caused this.

Glenn

your alt can get wet and be fine. If it gets wet all the time or on a regular bassis it will go out sooner than if it didn't get wet.

Stoenr

Yeah, I drained out a gallon+ of coolant and refilled with water and water wetter to the full line. Ran the road course on a hot day, in fact temp guage went past the middle. No boiling over what so ever.

adrenalin

Is it just me or are several parts on these mustangs failing way before they should? I constantly hear about batteries dying and now alternators. My warranty is up and would hate to have to pay for a new alternator on a car that only has 65,000km. However looks like my fuel pump has problems. Figures there is a TSB out on it but FORD won't replace it for free since the warranty is up.

krnpimpsta

i had a similar experience regarding a wet alternator.. i washed the engine bay of my volvo to make it clean for selling. i covered the alternator, but not well enough, and it stopped working, even after drying for a day. (i believe trying to make it run while wet damaged the voltage regulator circuit permenantly)

i had a "new" (from junkyard) alternator in hand, but could not do the replacement myself because all the bolts were located in places that only Smurfs could access. so, i had to take it to the dealer to swap it out.. i charged up the battery over night, and then drove 10 miles in the rain with the radio, headlights, air, etc, off. i even dimmed the dash lights as much as i could to conserve battery power.. and used the wipers about once every 40 seconds when my windshield became useless from rain (wiper motors = power).

but yeah.. that was a result of my own dumbassery and not the stealership's. glad to hear you made it there safely.

zaghloul

The dealer got back to me and it turns out the coolant resevoir cap is the culprit. The rubber seal broke and, according to the dealer, it lost almost a gallon of coolant. The alternator is shorted out, and they also seem to think that the leaking coolant is to blame. All covered under warranty, and I'm driving the 2008 Ford Mondeo as a loaner. She's a sweet car, too bad they don't have them in North America.

dustindu4

glad they got it figured out