My friends car was having what we thought were alternator problems. The car was left sitting for a month and the batt was still connected. by the time he came back it was low. We jumped it and it lasted about a min but it died after 30 seconds. We thought that the alt might not be charging the batt. We also looked into the service manual and it said the main ignition relay might be bad, we tested it with a voltmeter and it was bad so we swapped that and an ECU fuse as well, all other fuses are good.

We decide to take the alt out and get it rebuilt we took it to the place and the guy said the alt was good. He says the wiring may be bad, some sort of electrical issue. We had him rebuild it anyway because it will go eventually anyway.

So how do we check if the alt is correctly working? when the car is running we use the voltmeter and check the batt voltage right? and if it's above 12.6 to around 14.6 the alt is good right? Also if the alt is charging the batt that must mean the cables and wires are also good right?

I hope it is. Then our prob may have been a dead batt and the fuse/relay.

 

bump

 

could be your battery is not holding a charge either... make sure you check that also

 

yeah I got a 36 month warranty so I should be covered. But if the voltmeter says 14.6 volts with the car running that means the batt is charging so the alt works and since it works the wiring must also be good right? I know this answer but I need reassurance.