Well, I just got towed to my mechanic by AAA. I have a 2005 Ford Escape v6 4wd. This morning I drove it to work just fine, the power steering was giving me some problems but thats an old issue. When I went to go home it would not start. The AAA battery replacement truck came and ran some tests, he said it was the alternator and also the battery was dead. When the flat bed tow truck came he said the battery guy was an idiot and ran some more tests which showed the battery was charging, the starting system was fine, and the charging system was fine. He told me I was safe to drive it home, I just had a loose terminal. We let it charge for a little bit then I was on my way. I didn't make it two blocks before all the electronics shut down and by the time I pulled off to the side of the road the engine was crapping out. I called the tow truck back and he has absolutely no clue what it could be. At lunch time it ran fine however I did hit a pretty nasty bump. Any guesses of what it could be?
Try to guess what's wrong with my car because AAA has no clue
Also the mechanic won't be able to look at it until Monday. That's why I'm posting here, just to get some sort of idea. The pic is pretty much unrelated because mine isn't a hybrid.
an almost dead sparkplug?
It's a Ford.
Boy that would make me pretty happy. Cheaper than a new alternator I think.
And we already established that it's a Fucking Old Retarded Dodge.
Why are the retards always the first to reply? Do you think the car electronics get their electricity from the spark plugs? Do you think the spark plugs charge the battery? Did your parents drop you a lot?
Your alternator is probably dead, like AAA said. Possibly a loose wire at the alt, but probably not. Tow truck drivers aren't mechanics, don't listen to them.
Well if it is the alternator it's going to be pretty rough on the wallet. In fords infinite wisdom they put the alternator at the bottom so you have to take the passenger axel off.
I advice you to buy a multimeter, if you don't already own one. Its an essential tool for doing wiring, installing relays, checking grounds and measuring electrical power.
When you've acquired one you should do a test to see if its charging. It should be about 12-12.5 volts when turned off, 13.5-13.7 volts when on. These numbers do differ a bit from car to car and multimeter to multimeter - what is important is that you have more voltage with the car running, which means that its charging, aka the alternator works
If you have the same/less voltage with the car running then the alternator is not charging for one or more reasons, the most common being worn out brushes, broken charging relay and bad wiring
Your case sounds like a very common one, which plays out like this;
>dead/dying alternator that fluctuates between charging and being dead
>battery is put under immense loads, is overheated and/or experiences way too many cycles of charge and discharging
>ThisKillsTheBattery.jpg
Without a working alternator your car will run until the battery is out of juice. Without a working battery your car will run, but you won't retain a charge and you'll also notice that lights flicker and that your lights get noticeably brighter when you up the revs. This is due to the alternator by itself not delivering enough/stable power
Without a working battery nor an alternator you're not going anywhere
Summary; your alternator is probably the issue, and may or may not have killed your battery also.
BUT! There is always a but, and one that would've been easy to miss had you not mentioned your power steering. On pretty much all cars the power steering, the alternator and many more devices are powered by the engine itself through a serpentine belt, which is pulled directly by the crank. If this belt fails or starts slipping you'll soon notice a shitload of trouble like overheating, no charge, no power steering, no AC and more. Still, when this does happen there should be plenty of warning lights popping up on your dashbaord, and I can't really make myself believe that your car somehow haven't gotten any of those through this ordeal if the belt is struggling
You can let the sub frame down a little to avoid removing the axle.