Got an 05 F150 4.6 V8. Was heading to work. Got about 1/2 a mile and my radio shut off and the ABS light came ON.
Then noticed the voltage gauge had bottomed out.
Decided to turn around back to home. Made a right turn into a parking lot, and it was making a ton off noise like the power steering was messing up.
ABS light had went OFF and now the airbag light was ON.


Steering noise had went back to normal as i pulled out. Noticed lil loss of power. Gradually got worse till all gauges went out and had NO Throttle Response.

Pumping the gas gave very lil intermediate burst of barely any power.
Kept smashing the gas a bunch of time while just coasting. Finally smashing the gas all gauges came back and power returned to normal and made it back home.

Any Thoughts?

Friend at work thinks alternator locked up and bogged the motor down and then came free.

 

don't know about that ,I have seen alternators lock up and the engine spin the belt on the alt pulley till it melts ! It never bogged the 4cyl down.
sounds like fuel or electrical to me.....did you scan it to see if any engine codes got recorded ? if they did you may be able to go into "snapshot" which basically records all sensor data when the code was set.

 

No Phil, Didnt check for codes. I was running late for work. just parked it, got my wife's keys. I did get a flashlight and start the truck back up and look under the hood real quick. Didnt see anything or hear anything.

 

Have your alternator and battery tested. Bad batteries cause all kinds of issues with our 11th gen trucks.

 

So do bad alternators...

 

I told him to check both......common knowledge is that bad alternators cause electrical issues with ANY vehicle.

 

Did a quick test with a multi meter on the alternator. check battery, 12.4 v then cranked up. it took a few second for the alternator to start charging to 14.4. should be instant to my understanding. brushes could be getting bound up. tapped it with a hammer and we will see if it does it again. got a friend that gets good prices on parts. got a price for a new alt if needed for $160.

 

These trucks are picky about auto part store alternators. Is that price for Motorcraft?

 

I replaced my alternator probably two years ago. Used an advance auto reman. No problems since.

 

My truck did pretty much the same thing and it was the alternator. Hitch hiked 50 miles round trip to get a replacement at Advance Auto. First one was a reman and the bearing started chirping in about a week. Advance swapped the reman out for a new non-reman and have had no problems so far for about a year. Voltage is consistend 13.8-14.3 volts.

You can get a new (not re-manufactured) from Rock Auto or Amazon for about $100-120

https://www.amazon.com/Remy-92551-10...rds=REMY+92551

https://www.amazon.com/TYC-2-08318-R...318+alternator