Fancy schmancy "Total Connect" (renamed from "Entune") system on wife's RAV4 stopped working. Totally stopped. No connection for phone calls. No ability to do the "MayDay" thing. No response to voice commands, nor to steering wheel controls.

Technicians at Toyota dealer have no clue, they were not able to do anything.

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Hurricane moved out. Power back on, refrigerator running, and streets finally cleared enough for one lane of traffic, so time for a Publix run with the Ford Edge.

Mile or two from the house, charging system warning light (red battery symbol) comes on, only a couple minutes from the service shop that does my maintenance, so re-route and pull in there.

His impressive meter reads 9.3 volts. He orders a battery for me, I limp home and connect the charger over night.

Back there today, he starts to remove old battery and the terminal on the end of the cable is badly corroded. Attach new terminal, replace battery, car starts right up and as he is backing it out of the service bay, the same warning light comes on.

Return to service bay, run diagnostics, find that alternator is barely making 11 volts. Order new alternator, will be here tomorrow morning, service guy tells me that it's a 3 1/2 to 4 hour job on the Ford Edge because the brain scientist engineers at Ford picked a great location for the alternator.

Canceled a business meeting, no way to get there, waiting to hear from the other party when he can reschedule.

What's next?

Just stay out of construction zone to avoid pissing anyone off and damn'it when you make it to Publix put your shopping cart up!

Yeah the decision to put an alternator behind the water pump was not a brilliant Idea, almost as stupid as GM's LT1 setup the distributor below the water pump...

While it's out, change out the water pump, you've already spent the labor to get to the alternator, best to do preventative on that now...

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Yeah the decision to put an alternator behind the water pump was not a brilliant Idea, almost as stupid as GM's LT1 setup the distributor below the water pump...

While it's out, change out the water pump, you've already spent the labor to get to the alternator, best to do preventative on that now.

Nope, water pump is not that accessible in the Edge. Shop advises me that it requires engine removal, warns me not to be surprised if it pushes $2,000 in labor. For a phuken water pump!

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Yeah the decision to put an alternator behind the water pump was not a brilliant Idea, almost as stupid as GM's LT1 setup the distributor below the water pump...

While it's out, change out the water pump, you've already spent the labor to get to the alternator, best to do preventative on that now.

Nope, water pump is not that accessible in the Edge. Shop advises me that it requires engine removal, warns me not to be surprised if it pushes $2,000 in labor. For a phuken water pump!

IIRC, the non-EcoBoost 3.5 Ford V6 (Cyclone, IIRC) has the water pump inside the engine.
Glad it never gave us any trouble on our Flex.

Remember???

If it's not one thing, it's another...

RoseAnne Roseanna Danna, SNL
.

Never fails. I get three things done and working and my kids tell me the taillights on my truck are on. It’s late, so I disconnect the batteries and look at it in the daylight the next day.

Apparently, there’s a little plastic pad on the brake pedal assembly that hits a plunger on the brake switch. It’s about 1/2” in diameter and without it, the brake lights stay on. Of course all of the stores are closed, so I cut a piece of felt pad you put on the bottom of chairs legs to prevent scratching wood floors and stick it to the spot where the plastic piece was supposed to be. It worked for a little, but the felt compressed. I suck three squares of duct tape on top of the pad and I’m back in business.

Trapper 189 had something simular about 1 1/2yr ago..... At about 0300am hours someone loudly knocking on house front door... Found several local sheriff deputies asking about vehicle brake lights activated in our drive way.. After securing my Glock inside the house found brake lights activated and unable to turn off until pulling fuse out of fuse box...Later found the pad on the brake pedal missing just like your incident... did a little driveway enginering sort of like you did and still working for now. ...... drill sgt.

quote:

… service guy tells me that it's a 3 1/2 to 4 hour job on the Ford Edge because the brain scientist engineers at Ford picked a great location for the alternator.

I think at least the radiator fans, possibly even the radiator itself, have to come out. I don't like fixing this stuff any more than you like paying for it.