You defeat some of the weirdest automotive problems. I wish I didn’t live 1,400 miles away.

The charging system has two circuits. Gen Com (GENRC)and Gen Mon(GENLI). Gen Com is the PCM commanding the alternator. The PCM pulls the voltage from the regulator low to generate the command signal . Gen Mon is basically the regulator talking to the PCM telling the PCM that it is doing what the PCM is commanding on Gen Com. The regulator pulls the voltage low from the PCM to generate the signal. If you short the Gen Com to the Gen Mon at the connector and look at your GENRC and GENLI data pids the values will be bouncing back and forth because the PCM is seeing itself. That lets you know the PCM and circuits are good. You're only seeing one coil in your voltage waveform, so you could have another coil wacking the PCM and causing a reset. You also need to set your voltage scale higher to see those flyback spikes. They are maxing out at 200 volts. Set to 400V. If they max out above 400V, you have an issue.

In 2002, there was a TSB that said Ford claimed the voltage sense wire was too small of a gauge that would cause erratic charging. We soldered an additional wire in parallel and it solved the "several bad alternators" issue on the car we had.

Just recovered from smashing my thumb in a car door, I feel your pain!

I have never met or seen another mechanic attack problems with the approach that you take. Love your videos and always look forward to the next one.

My only complaint about Ivan's videos is that they're finished too quickly! I could watch them for hours! I love a good detectiove story and there's none better than watching this man and his craft. Thanks, Ivan.

Must be a ford thing. Reminds me of a video Eric o did a few years back. Had a Ford fusion that was turning on a light for an emissions related code. I don't remember the exact one. He did the testing and replaced the part but problem was still there. It would set the light as a certain rpm. He was getting ready to call an ecm. Thinking outside the box, problem occurs at 3000 rpm, what else happens at 3000 rpm. The power steering had a switch that activates at 3000 rpm. The switch was chattering, sending a signal back to the ecm that it could not process. As a result it would turn on the light for the emissions fault. He unplug the switch problem went away.

This reminds me of the old days, start off with new plugs and wires and go from there. Great catch Ivan.

This reminds me of the Ford 2003 and 2004 6.8L V10 engines in the (Los Angeles Dept of Water and Power) F350 1 ton utility vehicles I worked on in the early 2000's. The PCM code was for the Input Shaft Speed Sensor in the front of the transmission. Some of the vehicles came to our Main St shop from other shops. The speed sensor, the connector, wiring and tone ring were all good. After reading an article in IATN about a Chrysler minivan spark plug wire causing a misfire and that caused other electrical problems I decided to check the spark plugs. The vehicles are L.A. DWP City vehicles with LOTS of stop and go driving. ALL 10 plugs were worn down with over a .060 (60 thousandths) gap. 10 new plugs AND 10 new upgraded ign coils, all Motorcraft.......No more ISS code. Many of the 1 ton utility's came to our shop from other shops for the same Code and fix. The trucks would wear out plugs in as little as 35,000 miles. City driving and heavy loads will do that. Most never made it to 100,000 before changing parts. The 5.4L V8 2 valve engines would misfire with worn plugs at 80,000 to 100,000 miles. New plugs and coils and off they'd go. Good one Ivan, hope the neighbor appreciates what you've done!

I swear people will look at you crazy after this case study. Job well done.

Back in the early 2000's, my dad was convinced his Buick's transmission was toast. Turned out to be the plug wires, and he was past the recommended replacement mileage. I think the next couple of cars he had had neither the recommended internal or the issues when they weren't changed. I've heard that on some Fords, bad plugs can damage the engine computer! That would ruin your day!

I love your video's, but I'm always a bit sad when there is no bonus footage...😢

I have watched nearly every video you have ever made.....and this is the most unusual I have ever seen. GREAT JOB ! Best diagnostic tech in America.

You have had some really weird case studies with coils and plugs. I would never have thought something like this could happen. Very difficult to find. Great job Ivan!!

I've found a electrical rebuild shop for my 50 yr old Lucas alternator. The shop immediately COMPLETELY disassembled and then replaced EVERYTHING. Everything works and has worked for a decade. Find a good shop and let them go to work.

Its the circus of circuits that have a built in shut down! Nice work Ivan!

Crazy!! At least it wasn't the RADIO causing the problem..... 🙃

Woah ! blew my mind twice this week. I just went thru an intermittent coolant leak that would never leak when I was looking at it. Replaced the expansion tank cap and no more leak.

Noticed the 1mm drill hole in your left thumb Ivan, THE only way to burst a blood blister!! Well done 👍😂

You’re the reason I have a scope by the way. Thank you

AMAZING!! We are lucky to have these videos. Not that I'm a mechanic but I just love thinking about mechanical things and solving puzzles. Between you and Automotive Diagnostics & Programming If I were young I would be addicted and what to go into this line of work . . . I would of course have to be good enough at math to take electrical engineering in college. But when I was young I could lean anything I was interested in so I would be motivated to learn math better than I did 55 years ago. I was just a C student in math.

Every problem has solution but few people are as willing as you to discover it. You deserve all the accolades that you receive! Congratulations for your dedication to success! Bravo!👏

12:00 purple thumb.... been there, done that lol! Great vid, sir ivan!!!!

This information needs to stay in my memory bank. Great diag and resolution

Crazy ...Great diagnosis ..and it appears new plugs properly gapped was the cure...Kudos

You collect weird cases, Ivan! I was still watching, but my first thought was: could it be an intermittent bad ground with engine shaking? Well, you proved me wrong :-) Go figure, bad plugs cause spikes that the electronics don't like - insane! That's why I love the old "dumb" alternators :-)

This man is a straight up Genius!. The troubleshooting and the stuff he solves is remarkable.

Still think you need a customer reaction video. Imagine the reaction for not charging and you replaced spark plugs. "That's not why I brought it in for" ;)

Amazing diagnostics. I have a 2007 Ford Escape, and you know they do are sensitive about spark plugs being on good condition, 50k is ok for these! 80-100k is pushing it. Also you customer /neighboor was lucky the PCM did not fried the coil drivers, because that is what happens on these years of Ford cars and SUV's, when the spark plug gap is to big, it damages the coil, shorts it out, then fries a driver. Happens on Fusions too which uses a similar PCM to the Ford Escape.

I bet the Ford engineers who designed that system didn't know that an excessive spark plug gap could destroy part of the alternator.

The value of a good test drive. Great job Ivan!

Brilliant diagnosis Ivan!

I want to thank you for this video. I had similar issues with my 2007 Escape where the alternator would charge if I installed a freshly charged battery, but the next morning it wouldn't show it was charging and the battery would read 11.5 volts while running. I was about to take it to the Ford dealer for a $900 alternator replacement when I came across your video. I installed NKG plugs and the battery light went out and the alternator is charging normally now. You saved me a ton of money! What caused the battery light to come on in the first place was an engine light that came on after I put fuel injector cleaner into a tank that had about 2 gallons of gas in it (a mistake on my part). It caused the engine to misfire. I filled the tank and the engine light cleared away but the battery light kept coming on.

Nice work. I actually figured it out early. For electrons to flow across a gap air has to be ionized. If the gap is very wide, voltage has to build higher to make the jump. Add pressure from throttle opening and you can get a no spark situation. That results in a voltage spike on the trigger wire. Now. Why the computer can't tolerate that spike is another story. Great troubleshooting.

I had a friends escape with the same symptoms. I tried about 3 different alternators. finally I though go with oem parts so I went to the dealer and was standing at the counter waiting for the parts guy when a ford tech came in for parts and he said let me guess you had an escape and it's over charging. don't tell this place I told you this but go to napa they only seem to be the ones beside oem parts that will work with this car. so I tried it and it actually work.

I think your smoking gun was that first capture on the test drive.. Where you showed the voltage spikes on the PWM signal from the alt.. You could literally see the spike on the square wave. Pretty crazy. I just wonder if it was actually arching/shorting on the alt wire somewhere in the harness-- or if it was actually back feeding to the PCM through the coil control wire? Very cool capture. (17:50)

Great job and tutorial Ivan

Hi Ivan, Another excellent round of sleuthing. Who would have thought that spark plugs would have caused an alternator problem. Noticed a blackened thumb nail with a hole. Did you happen to whack your thumb? I've done it a few times and needed to relieve the pressure with a red hot pin to make a hole. What a relief when the blood spurts out.

One heck of a catch! Good job.

Incredible scenario and even better diagnosis and theory proven. Well done Ivan. Always learning from you.

Awesome, thanks for the video. I have a 2006 Ford Freestyle here right now with identical symptoms. Cuts out under load, bucking, battery light comes on, returns to normal.

Ivan. Once again I'm astonished by the fix! You never seem to amaze me. Thank you.

5 alternators? wow thats crazy. i like rockauto too and get my parts from them also. you have very good diagnostic skills.

Superb diagnosis !

Remi is reman by BBB in mexico.. worked at their ca warehouse as a truck driver..right at the time they started doing brake calipers in Stockton ca

YES, Bernie Thompson training, add redundant grounds to the ignition system and head for ignition specifically to battery for a sure path for the high voltage to return to ground and starter to battery for that system specifically for the same reason plus to help prevent magnetism within the block and trigger wheels specifically during a super high amp draw for the starter initial kick, cheers.

I suppose this is another reason to make sure that the scheduled maintenance (spark plug replacement) is done as scheduled ;-) Another great video, thanks for sharing

Thanks Ivan. Great info

Been awhile since I visited your channel. Missed the diagnostic work. Thank you for a great diagnostic and repair video.

Great diag and repair.keep the videos coming.thanks for sharing.

Never heard of anything like that before! Thanks for sharing that with us.

Brilliant technical video. Love it 👍🏻

I have followed you for some time now. You have taught me that I don't have a chance in hell of fixing any of this stuff, even if I had the $$ for all the equipment, where am I going to get the 10 years of knowledge to put it to good use. My next auto, when the present one dies, will be a 1964-1967 Mustang. It will have a 289 and C4 with a/c and steering. I'll pay a pretty penny for it, but still cheaper than buying a new car at $40-$60K and it will always be worth what I payed for it, no depreciation. I'm totally through with Check engine lights and a level of complexity that is beyond my talents to understand let alone repair. Keep up the good work , I wait for your videos like a kid on the stoop waiting for the ice cream man!

That's great info. Thanks Ivan!

outstanding work!!! Thanks for sharing this video

Thanks for the video Ivan.

Awesome build! That's way more elegant than I thought it would be.

My goodness! Well, it speaks volumes of your diagnostic style and skill set!

Wow!! Crazy stuff! Good job on the diagnosis. 👍

Really nice work. Before getting started on repairs you may need to add checking spark plugs along side oil levels. Some of the basics are causing unrelated issues. Glad you didn’t have to swap out another alternator.

Hi Ivan, very good catch! I never have seen a spark plug kill anything but the coil or make noise in the radio, naturally I have never had to work on these computer cars! I did see that the problem was load generated which does point at the ignition system. Rich

This is the kind of time consuming diagnostic that dealerships and most independent shops either won’t do or can’t do. So gratifying to watch this. I’ve seen some guys test new, supposed name brand plugs only to find out they are poorly made fakes. Ever had that experience?

Glad it's fixed! First thing I thought of, when you linked the fault to a misfire, was either 1) misfire rocks engine -> trapped wire shorts or 2) trapped wire shorts -> misfire!

This actually makes a good deal of sense. In the most Layman terms, when an inductive load cannot discharge where it is supposed to, it has to discharge somewhere else, and that inductive kick can make its way back to the PCM and set some logic chip bits in prohibitive states and stuff like this happens. It is also possible the PCM has a capacitor or something to deal with this, and that capacitor has failed. After all, its only 18 years old.

Outstanding videos, very informative, thanks.

Another brilliant diagnostic.

Wow good diagnosis! That is awesome work,

Wow! What a diagnosis’s! But as always you follow the clues, test, and verify. I would be surprised if very many techs would figure this one out. Not surprised you figured it out. Thanks for another great video.

Top work, Ivan.

Great catch! Ive had worn plugs take out the PCM drivers for the coils i would imagine due to high primary voltage spikes. Nice place for an alternator for sure...

Very good diagnostics!

What the heck ? First thing i think about is Bernie Thompson at ATS. He had a "2003 Ford T Bird throttle defaulting" and car was going into limp mode because of spike when the AC coil turned off. Always enjoying to watch your videos. You've saved your neighbors for sure ! Many mechanics would go down the rabbit hole. Well done Bernie .. ops i mean Ivan 👍😂

that's very good work Ivan , well done,

Great work Ivan.

One of the coolest diag videos yet. Super wierd. Nicely done, sir. 🇺🇸🇺🇸

Nice Case Study for sure Have Never Seen Spark Plugs cause a No Charging Fault But after that many Alternators Figured it had to be something Else Great Diag for Sure

Love the videos, you're very methodical and persistent. Thought someone like you would wear the seat belt, here we have "click it or ticket" laws, they can pull you over for that alone. BUT I'm going to give up trying to get you to use them, it's not working. Stay safe out there buddy.

I'm not sure that you definitely diagnosed this issue with a clearly proven fault Ivan, but your experience and gut feeling seemed to be spot on. Hopefully this issue won't return.

So the ignition coils were acting like a emp bomb and disrupting the PCM. Good find!!!

Good job Ivan! You're the man! I'll just about bet that anything of these sorts of problems like this one are sure to be met with intense scrutinizing!! Maybe I just need to take a ride down where you are at and have you solve some of my gremlins that I have on my 03 Jeep Grand Cherokee! I'm only about 2 hours away from you.

I work on my own vehicles my entire life, and worked as a mechanic for a while.. but i have been following Eric at south main for years.. thats how i found you. In a video he said where you were coming from. Turns out your about 35 minutes from me. I keep that in my mind, cause i know that if there's ever electrical i cant solve, your not far away 🙏 and you bet, I'll be coming to you.

Years ago I built and tested computers. We did have a "Glitec" that we could not see because the capacitor of th scope remobed it. We could only see it when we used a cutrrent scope. You are very patient and excellent ar diagnosing!!

Great catch!!

Great diagnostic skills mate. This is what happens now with sneak circuits, EMI/RFI and all the microprocessors in the cars.

Hi we learn something new everyday. Thanks

Brilliant diagnosis mate! 😃👍! Gotta think outside the box sometimes with all the electrickery going on under the bonnet of modern cars! Hey your left thumbmail! - OUCH!!!! Car door? Rat trap? Looks like that hurt! D'oh!

Bravo again. You've got more BINGOs than a nursing home on a Saturday Bingo night.

Another brilliant tutorial. It'll take me a week though to work that one out.

That was a very interesting case, but as you said that smart charging system it can disable the alternator s soon as a voltage spike is detected. You are the man when it comes to electrical gremlins. I looking forward to the next case.

Yes, sir. Another amazing video. I had no idea that plugs could cause this. That's why I am here to learn.

very interesting case study

Very cool !!!!! Nice thought and diagnosis process. Like !!!!

Great catch

Thanks Ivan!

Awesome video and repair.

Thank you Ivan

Ivan, That is what you get with talented technicians!

Great fix!

I noticed the ABS light was on during your test drive . My 2007 Escape had the tone rings cracked on the front drive axles. I had lest than 25, 000 miles . The rings are very thin. Thanks for the great video's.

I had an '06 Volvo with a ford smart charge system and it caused some very strange problems that seemed completely unrelated. The alternator used an over run decoupler pulley that was only manufactured by one US firm at the time. They gave it a life span of 50k but that wasn't reflected in the service schedule. I had BCM faults but no codes until the alternator and pulley were swapped out. it also cured a rough idle I'd always assumed was caused by worn vacuum motor mounts.