Okay, so I have a 2001 Ford Taurus LX. 132,000 miles on it. The other day I drove to a friends house. I shut off my car and when I came out to restart it it wouldn't start for nothing. It was making a click click click sound. First though battery or starter. I bought a new battery. I hooked iit up and the car did start, flawlessly, but a red battery indicator light was on. This told me that the car alternator may be faulty? So I ruled out the starter. Now I took the alternator in to be tested. It passed at autozone, however, I decided to buy a new one. So i got one they took my old and I took the new one home and hooked it up with the new battery on car. That warning light is still on and idk what to do. I took the alternator back to autozone and got a refund. i got my old alternator back. I took that to a rebuilder who inspected and and opened it up and hooked it to his machine. It passed so he said nothing was wrong. Amps 115 and voltage 14.5. anyways I was shocked. He also tested my battery it was great. So I went home hooked everything back up. The car is still running off battery power and light still on. I buy a voltage tester started to test battery make sure it worked. Light came on. I then tested the hot wire on alternator where nut is and it never lite up. So that mean s a fuse right? IDK what fuse to look at or nothing cause my car doesn't have a manual or a diagram. The fuse box cover just shows numbers for each box underneath. Anyone have any idea whats casing my alternator to not power on? What fuses should I look at? Any suggestings?




UPDATE: Okay so it ended up being a "MEGA FUSE" located beside the fuse box under the hood.....exclusive ford part.


Anyways now I have new problems....fans wont power on. The high fan and low fan relays have been replaced. Still not powering on. Also my ac is blowing hot air and it was very cold before.......any tips people?

 

You have the best tool to check the fuses, the voltmeter. Just connect the negative lead of the voltmeter to a good ground and then check every fuse in the fuse block on both sides of the fuse. If you have a blown fuse , one side will show 12 volts and the other side will show nothing if it is blown. You will need to turn the ign on to check some of the fuses, but it works every time. Don't forget to check the fuses under the hood too! I would need to check , but some of the later model cars have the alternator controlled by the car's computer (ECM).