My 1998 Mondeo TD has electrical issues and I need ideas of what it might be and was hoping one of you guys and gals might be able to help.

Basically it started off last week with my right front headlamp LENS melting...yes the plastic bit at the front has melted on the high beam part. Then saturday night I went out and stopped the engine for no more than 5 minutes and it wouldn't start was just clicking. Phoned breakdown people he came out and jump started it was working fine got about 100 yards away from my home all of a sudden the lights started going really dull about 50 yards further up I lost all lights completely apart from lots of pretty lights on the dash. basically when I lost my headlights I also lost my rev counter, speedo, fuel gauge reading and temperature the lights that were showing up were the check engine light, battery light, ABS light, Airbag light, hand brake light etc.

Coasted it home parked up switched off tried restarting and got the clicking again. Left it over night and had no life at all so phoned the recovery out yet again they came out completely dead battery again so he jumped it again and put a multimeter on it and while on tickover the battery is fine it will get a full 14 volts going through it but if you rev it the power is draining away completely after about 3 minutes the battery charge had gone down to 2 volts...no I didn't miss the 1 it really was 2 volts!

The symptoms are the right side headlamp blows a bulb about once every 3 weeks sometimes sooner, obviously all those up above, it had a brand new number plate light unit from Ford for the MOT which has burnt out again.

The alternator was reconditioned a few month ago the glow plugs and glow plug relay were replaced a few months ago too (all parts have burned out yet again) the started motor is a brand new heavy duty Bosch unit, the battery was replaced a few months ago so I am stuck for ideas.

The car is also my living now so obviously I need to know what's wrong I'm lucky that I've got my grandad's car for a few days but if anyone can tell me what it could be would be fantastic as I really am at a loss on this one...

Thanks in advance!

 

Got to be the voltage regulator on the alternator IMO. Can you rig up a voltmeter inside the car to see what's going on as you are driving? You should be seeing a steady 14.5ish volts at all times with the engine running.

 

Already tried it instead of a steady reading the voltage is going down with the revs the higher the revs the quicker the drop...

 

I'd be trying another alternator on it then and see what happens.

 

As said it sounds like a regulation problem, that is most likely what has caused the bulb to blow as it's overcharging (Assuming this isn't a separate coincidental issue). The regulators can be replaced independently, instead of changing the whole unit.

This is assuming it isn't "Smart charge" controlled, this is a Ford system on newer cars, whereby the regulation is done by the ECU, I think yours will be to old though.

Easy way to tell if to look at the connections, if you have a 3 pin plug, then it's a smart charge setup, but I should think yours will be the conventional setup.

Martin