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Headlights and interior lights flicker


masanders

masanders

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Having some electrical issues and need some help please...

Lately my Ranger has had some electrical bugs creep up and I'm not sure what's going on.

Issue #1: When I'm driving at night I can see my stock radio display back lighting flickering. I can't tell if my instrument cluster is flickering or not.

Issue #2: While driving at night when I press my brake pedal, my headlights flicker. I think the hvac and other console (?) lights flicker as well but I'm not 100% on that.

Issue #3: My driver's side power lock switch will lock but will not unlock every time. It's very fickle. It's a new switch.

The only recent changes are that I took out my Kenwood stereo. Sometime back I rewired my fog lights (original setup did not have fog lights. Bought oem fog lights and wired them up with a kit from Painless Performance) and haven't had a problem with them since the rewiring.

Are these issues related?

Any help is appreciated!
 


masanders

masanders

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Sorry...

2006 Ford Ranger XLT 4x2

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adsm08

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Check all your battery cable connections first. After you confirm everything there is good and tight get out your volt meter and do a redneck-ripple test. Set it to AC voltage, on the smallest scale available and check voltage across the battery with the engine idling. .3V AC is ok, anything more is excessive and the alternator will need replaced, or if you can find a place that rebuilds them the voltage rectifier (usually part of the regulator) will need replaced.

AC voltage bleeding into the system through a failing rectifier can cause what you have described. It happens in house lighting too, but you don't notice it because the cycle is faster than the human eye can register. If you want to see the effect find an old CRT monitor or TV and look at it through a video camera.
 
masanders

masanders

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adsm08 said:
Check all your battery cable connections first. After you confirm everything there is good and tight get out your volt meter and do a redneck-ripple test. Set it to AC voltage, on the smallest scale available and check voltage across the battery with the engine idling. .3V AC is ok, anything more is excessive and the alternator will need replaced, or if you can find a place that rebuilds them the voltage rectifier (usually part of the regulator) will need replaced.

AC voltage bleeding into the system through a failing rectifier can cause what you have described. It happens in house lighting too, but you don't notice it because the cycle is faster than the human eye can register. If you want to see the effect find an old CRT monitor or TV and look at it through a video camera.
Click to expand...
I'll do that soon. I forgot to mention that I did replace my alternator a few months back because the rectifier went bad.



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adsm08

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Still check it, because sometimes those replacement ones are less than great. Even from Ford.

One time I was dealing with a Mustang, I put four alternators on it in 6 months, and this thing barely got driven. The warranty department was getting ready to audit us and charge us back for three of them and then we found out that the facility doing the Ford authorized reman units that Warranty wanted us using were doing a piss poor job. We got the OK to put a brand new one on and never had another issue with that car.
 
masanders

masanders

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Alrighty...I only know scratch the surface basics of electricity but I got this reading:

On AC I had 2.1V on the 200m setting. I'm not sure what the lowest setting is supposed to be.

 
masanders

masanders

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Don't get louder, improve your argument.
Or is that supposed to be .21v?

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