Car left me stranded last night, AGAIN. Need to Vent!

[Freakingstang]

I'm sick of this car...I've owned it less than two years and it has 36K miles on it and has left me stranded 5 times now.


Buy the car with 27k miles. stock with pulley and exh and diablosport tuner. I own it three days and the idler explodes... do some reading and find out the idlers are notorious for failing in pullied applications...ok, no biggie....put Billetflow idlers on it.

A week later the stock ford electric fan locks up and I overheat the car.. let the car cool down, fill it with water and drive it home...read up on the fans and decided to put an autozone Dorman fan in it.

Put some other parts on the car and have it tuned..Tuner says alt is droppping voltage above 4K....

put the car away for winter...

Take the car out in the spring. 60 degree day. Electric fan locks up and over heats the car in town... (2800 miles on AZ fan)

Order a New FORD Fan from Tousely Ford and a reman alt while I'm at it..

swapped out billet flow idlers for METCO double bearing idlers because pulleys are making noise

Last night, car dies coming home from going out to eat (2800 miles on FORD reman alt).


WTF is going on with this car? Why is it eating alternators and fans?

The car has 36K on it now, I bought this thing relatively stock and low miles so I wouldn't have these problems. It isn't a daily driver, it only gets driven when its nice, and it seems like it has left me stranded WAY to many times...

 

[Root1022]

The alts. suck on these cars, well documented, and going with a ford REMAN is asking for trouble really. The best alt you can get for these are Jamies start'n charge but i dont think hes selling right at this moment. As for the fans I'm not real sure about

 

[Jimmysidecarr]

The alts. suck on these cars, well documented, and going with a ford REMAN is asking for trouble really. The best alt you can get for these are Jamies start'n charge but i dont think hes selling right at this moment. As for the fans I'm not real sure about

I agree with this. Though so far my Ford alternator replacement is holding up fine. I did slow it down with a 3.2 Metco pulley however.

On the Autozone fan, all I can say is that's not really a surprise.

Some folks have modded Mark 8 Lincoln fans to work on our cars because they have the most CFM. It is a little involved though since they don't just bolt on.

I would change your alt pulley to a 3.2 Metco if you are using a stock lower crank pulley.

I would also check to see what the fan kick points are in your tune. It's not likely but it is possible that they may be overly aggressive if they have been reset.
Mine were reset and my fan has not dyed yet, but these cars are getting older now and I suspect I will be buying idler, tensioner, and probably an I/C pump before too much longer.

There are certain things that you can expect to eventually fail with these cars.

 

[Blk04Snake]

I'm with Jimmy.. You're overspinning the alternator. And there's very little that I'd buy from Autozone.. Who knows who made that fan that they are selling you since everything there is store branded.

I've got 51k on my car and it's on the original alt, fan, and had the original battery up until this spring. You just have to stay on top of maintenance, and use quality parts when things break. And on top of that, no matter the manufacturer, all cars have their own common problems. None of them are perfect.

 

[03' White Snake]

My alt. needs replacing, I bought the car with 10K miles and it now has 30K, I pullied it at 14K and I have the 3.2 alt pulley and my alt is still crapping out. My battery light comes on and off while I'm driving it. My car is not daily driven, and only when the suns out, I don't want to take it too far just so it won't leave me stranded.

 

[CobraBob]

Jimmy's points are spot on. Do you still have the stock lower crank pulley?

 

[cobracide]

I agree with this. Though so far my Ford alternator replacement is holding up fine. I did slow it down with a 3.2 Metco pulley however.

Yep, I have 40k+ miles and was stranded once because a relay burned up. Underspin the alt. I have a 4# lower with a 6# alt. pulley. You can also use one of your front ducts to cool the alt. Both help.

These cars have issues, yes. It all can be corrected usually.

 

[VictorySong]

78k Here, driven hard all the time. No problems yet! I am planning to get a spare alternator if it doesn't sell though just to be on the safe side.

 

[Red Turtle]

While it does suck, the reman. alt. and cheap ass AZ fan are part of the problem. I recently sold my 04' that had the stock alt. still on it.

Sorry for your troubles, but hang in there.

 

[Freakingstang]

I put the az dorman fan on after reading up on them here... Would have never thought about it otherwise. The alt was a reman ford item because that's what everyone here said because Jamie wasn't makin his anymore. Mine has the stock lower pulley on it now... Fan settings on are factory...

 

[Tims97SVT]

What makes you say the alt is over spun with the stock lower? Where is the hard data I can read for this?

 

[03mustang92]

It seems if that if your car is a dd or close to it, then the alts last longer which is messed up yes, but im at 71000 and i put one alt in and owner b4 put i think 2 in, and i think he rarely drove it

 

[randoo]

Ive gone through 3 motors, clutches, rear end housings,half shafts, alts, tensioner pulleys,cam gear bolts backing out,valve guides wearing out and whatever else ive forgot. Im $60k deep into this cobra. I love it and they make great power but get ready to spend because they are NOT!! reliable.......TRUTH

 

[VictorySong]

Ive gone through 3 motors, clutches, rear end housings,half shafts, alts, tensioner pulleys,cam gear bolts backing out,valve guides wearing out and whatever else ive forgot. Im $60k deep into this cobra. I love it and they make great power but get ready to spend because they are NOT!! reliable.......TRUTH

I'd sell that POS, these cars are one of the most if no THE MOST reliable cars for high HP daily driven applications in this price range. This is the first time I've ever heard anyone say otherwise.:shrug:

 

[jdgt03]

Ive gone through 3 motors, clutches, rear end housings,half shafts, alts, tensioner pulleys,cam gear bolts backing out,valve guides wearing out and whatever else ive forgot. Im $60k deep into this cobra. I love it and they make great power but get ready to spend because they are NOT!! reliable.......TRUTH

Either u bought a lemon or your really really hard on your car.

 

[Tims97SVT]

What makes you say the alt is over spun with the stock lower? Where is the hard data I can read for this?

Anyone? What is too much/over spun rpm for the alt? I would like a number xxxx rpm? If you know what said value is then all you have to do is stay below this value and the problem is solved.

 

[Freakingstang]

Anyone? What is too much/over spun rpm for the alt? I would like a number xxxx rpm? If you know what said value is then all you have to do is stay below this value and the problem is solved.

There's a bunch of threads on here that give the details but basically the stock pulley on the alt makes the alt spin at something like 19-20k at 7000 rpm iirc. The bigger metco alt pulley drops it to 13k or thereabouts. But guys are still having problems burning up the alternators. It is is a horrible location for heat and it is a lot of draw on it and it is too small of a case to properly dissipate the heat

 

[BigMikeCobra]

my cobra did the same shit to me today too...I bought the car last week or so. 30k miles on it. It was bogging down on me, got to the house turned it off, and tried to start it again it clickedddddd. I jumped it and it started up but when I removed the cables it died. my assumption would be the alternator according to all the details above. I got a 2.76 pulley on it if that matters.

 

[Tims97SVT]

There's a bunch of threads on here that give the details but basically the stock pulley on the alt makes the alt spin at something like 19-20k at 7000 rpm iirc. The bigger metco alt pulley drops it to 13k or thereabouts. But guys are still having problems burning up the alternators. It is is a horrible location for heat and it is a lot of draw on it and it is too small of a case to properly dissipate the heat

OK but what is max rpm the alt can take? 15k? 18k? :shrug:

Also I think the engineers at ford did the home work and sized the alt pulley correctly for the crank pulley size.

 

[Sonic605hp]

Wow, some of you guys are so unlucky. I have had 4 of these cars for a total of about 6 years and only had one of them cook an alternator. Put a new Ford unit on and there were no further issues. My first one had the rear end vibe though...I don't think any that I have been in didn't have at least ONE of the notable issues for these cars. But let's be honest the build quality of an 03-04 is not even close to the same level as a current mustang and it was the first iteration of the supercharged 4v v-8. Considering that these cars are pretty reliable and hold up decently for what guys like us put them through.