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car: 97 EX auto stock f22b1 w/140k miles

i washed my engine bay on thursday night. i used some engine degreaser to get the gunk out and rinsed it with normal pressure water. i only covered the distributor cap. then i moved the car into the garage.

it sat all day friday. saturday morning came and tried to start it with no crank, no dash lights, no power! took a multimeter to the battery to find 0.5V. jumped started the car and she fired up, but the battery light in the dash remained on. drove around to get the alternator to charge up the battery but noticed tach and speedo would work intermittently (on and off at times), then the car bogged until dead!

now obviously it sounds like i fried the alternator b/c i failed to cover it, or did i? why did my battery drain, and it's fairly new btw? the car would run fine when connected to another battery ontop of its own (as it would be during a jump start) but as soon as i disconnect it the car would bog and die. the car was running perfect prior to all this. what gives?

thanks in advance fellas!

 

Did you cover the fuse box?

Usually when I clean my engine bay I let the car run for at least 20 mins before turning it off to burn off all the water in there.

Battery light usually means alternator is bad.

You probably got water in the fuse panel, causing a short which could have drained the battery.

 

yep it was the alternator! replaced it with one from my friend and she's alive. thanks muffinman! never again will i wet the alternator.

 

No problem, glad you got it sorted out