Howdy all,
This just came up and I haven't had a lot of time to really do too much diagnosis, and it's cold and dark out.
This is regarding the Focus in my signature.
I was sitting in the Burger King drive thru waiting for my order and the car stalled out entirely after the idle slowly dropping. I have an (also suspected) sticky IAC so the low/poor idle is something I have grown used to and it's never died entirely before. To my horror, the car wouldn't re-start, only clicking and flashing lights. I managed to get the car pushed out away from the drive thru window and bump-started it and all was well until I started accelerating up a slight grade and it bucked and flashed lights under a load. Stalled again. After this I was able to reverse roll bump start it (I'm proud that I was able to pull this off) and then I was able to get it into a parking lot about a mile (and uphill) from my house.
I walked home, got the Mountaineer and a multitester. I drove back to the car, tested the battery (showed about 13v), tried to start it and still got clicks. I put the jumper cables on, the car started and ran perfectly fine until I pulled the ground side of the jumper cables off. The car sputtered and died the same way it did in the drive through. I ended up rolling the car down the street to my house. It exhibited the same behavior after a few minutes on the battery charger. It started and ran fine from the batter charger and actually ran for a minute or two before sputtering and dying yet again. Battery again tested at 13v or so but would not start.
I feel like based on my limited testing and diagnosis it points to a bad engine ground. Anyone have another direction to point me in?
This just came up and I haven't had a lot of time to really do too much diagnosis, and it's cold and dark out.
This is regarding the Focus in my signature.
I was sitting in the Burger King drive thru waiting for my order and the car stalled out entirely after the idle slowly dropping. I have an (also suspected) sticky IAC so the low/poor idle is something I have grown used to and it's never died entirely before. To my horror, the car wouldn't re-start, only clicking and flashing lights. I managed to get the car pushed out away from the drive thru window and bump-started it and all was well until I started accelerating up a slight grade and it bucked and flashed lights under a load. Stalled again. After this I was able to reverse roll bump start it (I'm proud that I was able to pull this off) and then I was able to get it into a parking lot about a mile (and uphill) from my house.
I walked home, got the Mountaineer and a multitester. I drove back to the car, tested the battery (showed about 13v), tried to start it and still got clicks. I put the jumper cables on, the car started and ran perfectly fine until I pulled the ground side of the jumper cables off. The car sputtered and died the same way it did in the drive through. I ended up rolling the car down the street to my house. It exhibited the same behavior after a few minutes on the battery charger. It started and ran fine from the batter charger and actually ran for a minute or two before sputtering and dying yet again. Battery again tested at 13v or so but would not start.
I feel like based on my limited testing and diagnosis it points to a bad engine ground. Anyone have another direction to point me in?