This 2003 Ford Expedition came in with the complaint that the alternator had been replaced twice and the charge light light indicator was still coming on. The shop that had installed the alternators had called in desperation as their customer was becoming quite upset. They also stated that the light may stay out all day or only about an hour. When their customer showed up with the vehicle I was a little surprised. The shop usually sends vehicle on a flat bed and drops them off. Time to try and make everybody happy (except Me) while the customer waits(I was trying to eat lunch). I did a quick visual inspection of the wiring at the alternator and everything looked okay. I checked codes and found a code P0620 stored (alternator problem). I then looked at the wiring leading to the alternator and I saw this telltale sign. A wire with discoloration against a metal object.
The metal object in this case was the a/c low pressure or suction line that runs along the lower edge of the battery. I lifted the wiring up and could tell from the amount of discoloration that I might have found the problem.
Yep there’s the problem. I removed some more tape. Wrapped the damaged wire. Rewrapped the harness.
Installed some split loom and cleared the codes. Rechecked the system and all was okay. Back to my lunch.
Sparky, thanks to you I have managed to save lots of money in the past. Now, my 03 Expy XLT charging and battery light flickered for approx. 5 minutes. I shut the engine off. Went to restart it, cluster will not light up and radio will not power on. I went to jump start it, charging and battery light was steady. I unhooked the jumper cables cluster and radio went off again. Expy still runs.
Sparky, you are the man! ’03 Expedition with 167,000mi started doing the same symptoms as mentioned. Just checked and had the exact same issue. In fact, your pictures could have been mine. Thanks for the assistance. I appreciate it!!!
Checked vehicle with same symptoms and found main cable on alternator barely making contact with alternator case. moved cable and covered with wire loom. battery light is now off. thanks for the help!
Sorry, I do not quite follow your question. If you have the same problem why would you change the alternator? By “going all the way up” , do you mean that the alternator is now charging but the light is on or do you mean it is pegged and overcharging? Did the windows work before you changed the alternator?
I have the same problem so I change the alternator and my Battery gauge went all the way up and the windows don’t work can you help me