Slidin'Sidewayz

Last night I was leaving the bowling alley and noticed my SRS light was staying on if I was at about 45 mph, then once I slowed down it went off. I also noticed my interior lights and headlights were flickering, not all the way off but just a consistent flicker. Then tonight as I was heading out to church the headlights were very dim and the battery light was on. I checked the belt, its tight. There was no power steering fluid on the alternator (seen that in a post in the search I did). One thing that I did notice is the battery light was on at low RPMs but once I increased the RPMs to about 2,000 the battery light would go off.

Does this sound like the alternator has gone bad? Or the internal regulator? Does not act like a battery, just replaced it in July.

I seen another guys post that said he had to replace the SRS unit because of it and another said that the ABS light was coming on because the alternator was over charging due to the regulator going to crap.

Any helps is appreciated but I don't want to hop on this project without seeing what you guys thought because it looks like a pain in the **** to get to the alternator.

Thanks,
NicholasE

allmotorabe

check your fuse

Slidin'Sidewayz

I didn't see it in the fuses under the hood and the ones under the dash doesn't have a cover to show me any type of diagram. Where is it at?

MagneMike33

If you have your owners manual it should state the locations of the fuse box and have a picture of the box and what is what. It sounds like the alternator regulator could be going out tho. At low RPMS the alternator cant put out enough amps but when you rev the alternator spins faster putting out more amps but the car should only be drawing 4 to 10 amps at most at idle. If you can check that with an AM meter that would be of some help. In any case you might just have to rebuild it.

Slidin'Sidewayz

Yeah the car didn't come with a manual, but i can get a hold of a meter and test it to see what its pushing out, but it won't be till atleast tomorrow before I could get a hold of it.

Kongo69

Ok heres what i have learned if your voltage regulator is going out or is out theres not really a inbetween it will only over charge your batt causing it to swell,smell,over heat, and eventually pop i got mine out before it pop and yes its a good size spew of batt water and acid.
Sounds like your bearings are going out in it causing the alt to work harder and produce less power.

Alt is not that hard to get to just take the power steering pump out and it should wiggle out make sure your harness/plug dosent go anywhere near the manifold bad news bears that is.
All in all it very well might be some unrelated issue but taken it out and having it test at a autoparts store is simple and a good place to start
!after you check the fuses!
if you need a new one a core charge should half the price do not go to pepboys there alts are refurbished in mayalsha and there crap.

Slidin'Sidewayz

It was the alt. it was only doing 12.02 volts and 30amps when we tested it. I drove it to the parts store and I did notice the SRS light and the ABS light was on while at 45MPH must be like a system that cuts out stuff when the charging system can't handle all the options or something but I think I got it figured out now.

Thanks!

Kongo69

let me know if you have any trouble with the install ive done this three times now.
happy for you man.

Slidin'Sidewayz

Thanks, it seems straight forward. I've got it out and had one shipped in today and it was a re manufactured and the shaft in it was warped because the pulley was going from being right on the alt to about 1/8th of an inch away so I told them to get me another. Too much work just getting in there for putting one on there thats going to wear out for too much longer. Thanks for the help!

Kongo69

Thats a very good point bro that i forgot to tell you.
TEST the new alt at the store too! and do what you did check it out make sure it spins right and dosent have any serious visual defects.