[Frodo]

So for 7 years I really haven’t had may issues with this car but just before Christmas on my way home in heavy rain/sleet/snow my radar detector gave me a low voltage warning and then the car went limp in bumper to bumper traffic. When I finally made it over to the side of the road I made the mistake of turning it off and it was dead. No power, the lights and flashers we so dim you couldn’t see them from 3 feet away. 5 hours later and a tow I was back at home and after jump starting the car it ran fine.

Now yesterday once again in traffic in the rain it went into limp mode again. This time when I got to the side of the road I turned off all the electronics and revved it up to about 3-4000 rmp for a good 15-20 minutes and it was fine again. And again no codes. Battery is only about 2 years old and tested ok at 12.8V.

Any ideas how to narrow this down more? I suspecting that it’s the Alternator, MAF or worst of all the ECU. It sucks that it’s not throwing codes and only happens in the worst weather. I took off the CAI last night and cleaned the MAF and TB and today I had no issues while driving to work in the rain but I had no traffic. So I am thinking its hopefully just the alternator starting to take a dump on me and not being able to keep up when the car is not moving.

 

[triniwi]

Maybe your alternator just test it with a multimeter. Run the car and test the v and if it keep up then it not the alternator. Turn on everything and check the v too with the car running bro. It should never go below 12.2v with the deforest or AC. If your alternator is ok after that then check your batt by checking the v after u turn off the car if it say 12.8 but after 6 hours it going down to 12.2 then your batt is weak get a new one bro take care and write back.

 

[i68k]

what he said ^^^^

make sure your battery terminals are tight, and you have good ground contact. check your battery voltage motor on & off. if your charging sytem isnt working fast enough to keep up with the draw, then any random sensor could lose voltage and make the motor run like crap. start with the basics, sounds like your battery if your lights are dim, it couldve died to due lack of recharge from the charging system.

otherwise, the whole idea of being in limp mode, and not having ses codes is sign of bad bad ecu, or bad electrical connection somewhere.

 

[Frodo]

Thanks guys,

I replaced the battery cable ends and cleaned up the battery when it died on me the first time. I checked the battery again last night and it’s still at 12.8 but when I checked the alternator with a full load it was up and down the entire time. So I got a new alternator ordered and hopefully it will arrive next week. I will report back once I install that. I also noticed that my leaky AC line left some oil residue on the side of the alternator. So possibly when the defrosted is on and it forces the AC on its getting enough refrigerant on the alt to short it out. So I will also now be replacing the AC line once I get the alt installed. I have no idea how to change that line and I don’t want to jack up my AC so it will be off to a shop for that.

 

[i68k]

you should have a certified ac tech do your ac. they will depressure the system, install the new lines, recharge, and look for leaks. you can always change the alternator right before/after you get the ac fixed. theres an alternator how-to out there somewhere, just search for it.

 

[Frodo]

So I replaced the alternator, swapped out my blown Koni's up front, changed the oil and rotated the tires. The old alternator and the entire side of the block was covered in green oil from the leaking A/C so I need to get some cash together to get that fixed. But everything else is installed and the alternator is generating a lot more power than the old. So far so good but after the test drive I tried to do the pedal dance to reset everything which I have done in the past many times with no issue. This time however when I do the throttle body reset procedure the car won’t start immediately after it just cranks and cranks. If I let it sit for a few seconds it will then start immediately. On the drive in today the car felt sluggish like the fuel kept cutting off at about 3000 and 4200 rpm in all gears. But after about an hour of driving it was getting a lot better. So hopefully the computer just needs to adjust itself and everything will be ok.

 

[i68k]

whenever you do the pedal relean, or throttle body relearn, you need to follow them up with an idle relearn. this is probably why the car was running crappy, it was most likely learning while you were driving, like youve stated.