I have a 1995 Ford Contour with around 138,000 miles on it. It has an automatic transmission with a 4 cylinder 2.0L engine. About a week and a half ago I was coming home from work and my battery light goes off. Several minutes later I notice my interior lights and headlights are growing dimmer. Finally the speedometer starts jumping around everywhere, and the cars dies. My headlights would still come on, and my interior lights were still working. The car just didn't have enought juice to crank. I'm thinking alternator. So I get a new alternator and have it put on and I drive it for a half a day and it does the same thing. We take it back to the shop and they test the alternator. They said that we were sold a defected alternator. I then exchange the defected alternator for another alternator and carry it to the shop to have it put on. After having another new alternator installed I start the car and drive it around the block and the battery light comes on again. We have the alternator checked again and it is also defected. We are thinking what the heck! We purchase an alternator with a lifetime warranty and have it installed. My Step-father drives it for half a day and it does the same thing. He calls the Ford dealership, and they tell us that sometime back they had a recall on that year and model. Something to do with degradation of underhood wiring harnesses. We are thinking that this is probably the culprit. We are just curious as what to do next. Any suggestions?
Jan 23, 2007 at 12:51 PM