Zilla

Hello all,

The past three weeks have been nothing short of a living hell. $2500 later, a new alternator and two new computers and the issue is still occurring like the day it started happening.

Two weeks prior (5 weeks ago):
Was driving as normal down to LA and noticed that whenever I would accelerate the radio would cut out/not be able to hear it, almost as though by accelerating it was drawing power away from the radio. NO more than two hours later the radio died all together, then the AC, then everything. Had to get it towed and turned out my alternator committed suicide. Got it replaced and it seemed to be fine.

How it started (3 weeks ago):
I was driving through a twisty canyon on fathers day to go to the beach. This is about 6 miles of twisty turns, not sure if relevant but including it anyways. Once I got out of the canyon and onto the highway I had to accelerate to get up to speed with traffic, once I got to 65-70 MPH all my dashboard lights started flashing, my brights would flash on and off, the gauges would go crazy and finally my steering wheel locked up and the car died, forcing me to pull off to the side of the road. I turned the car off, turned it back on and it seemed fine but then the problem happened again when trying to get up to a high speed. I had to drive home (about 60 miles) and it happened about four times on the way home. The problem was corrected by simply turning the car off and on again.

The Mechanics, aka hell:
They had no idea what was wrong, they replaced the computer and the alternator and then they messed up something with the computer so they had to order another one (at their expense) which had to be shipped from the other side of the US so all in all it took about two weeks. They gave it back to me, said it was fine so I drove it home. Didnt even make it home before the problem happened again. Got it towed back to them, they spent another week "working on it" and gave it back to me saying they test drove it and everything is fine. Low and behold its didnt work again. Took it back and just got it back tonight. Took it for a drive around the block, got onto a main street and didnt even get it up to 50 MPH before the same exact thing happened.


Anyone have any ideas? Im tired of these mechanics giving me the run around and really just want to know what is wrong so it can be fixed. I think the issue happens whenever it gets up to a certain RPM but im not much of a car guy so im not sure.

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you all.
Zilla

jchughes05

Bad 02 sensor, maybe? My Crown Vic used to do that when I would punch it to respond to a call.

ZJMAX

Any check engine lights during any of this?

Max

czettlera

You could try to measure the voltage on the battery with running engine at low and high rpm. Maybe you have an overcharging problem now at high rpm and this makes your electronic go crazy. It shouldn't be more than 14,5 - 15V.

czettlera

Hi any result, or improvement? I'm interested if you found a solution.