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#1
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Ford Probe '97 4-cyl brief power loss
Hello,
My Ford Probe recently (past 2 weeks) started showing some problems with intermittent brief power losses. The only thing I notice is that while driving the RPM indicator drops and the radio resets itself. A split-second later RPMs are up to where they were before and the radio starts playing again. This has happened 3 times today with 40 minutes between the incidents, at low and high speeds. Any ideas what might be causing this ? |
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#2
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My guess is that you are getting a momentary disconnect of electrical power,
maybe due to a bad ground, battery connection, etc. This supports a loss of power, radio reset, etc. |
#3
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Hmm, I can see that if it happened without the engine running. But if
the alternator is spinning then doesn't that mean there are essentially two power sources (alternator and battery) ? So with a bad ground from either one there should still be another connection or not ? Thanks. |
#4
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"grubertm" > wrote in message oups.com... > Hmm, I can see that if it happened without the engine running. But if > the alternator is spinning then doesn't that mean there are essentially > two power sources (alternator and battery) ? So with a bad ground from > either one there should still be another connection or not ? Lets not limit it just to a bad ground, but expand it to a bad connection of some type. This is what will cause a radio reset condition, and supports temporary power loss as well. If you can find a schematic on this car, you might be able to narrow down the circumstances that would lead to a temporary loss of voltage. If it were I, I would check and clean all ground terminals, battery terminals, etc and make sure connections were good as a starter. 'Intermittents' like this can be hell to find, at times. |
#5
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Well it has not ocurred again in the past week so I guess it really was
a simple mistake on my part: After reconnecting the battery ground terminal I I had tightened the nut but did not tighten it all the way. Now I applied some more torque and the problem has disappeared. |
#6
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grubertm wrote: > Well it has not ocurred again in the past week so I guess it really was > a simple mistake on my part: > After reconnecting the battery ground terminal I I had tightened the > nut but did not tighten it all the way. Now I applied some more torque > and the problem has disappeared. Well, there you go! The alternator only generates voltage potential above ground. Therefore, even though it would supply + voltage to a loose battery positive terminal, a loose battery ground terminal would still cause an open circuit in the entire system (in reference to battery ground, which is the true source of electron flow; your chassis is just along for the ride). Glad you found the cause. Toyota MDT in MO |
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