Just ran into a series of electrical problems today and I'm hoping they are familiar to someone here...

While driving earlier today I saw my charging system warning light was on and staying on.

Within just a few minutes the RPM and speedo gauges started behaving erratically, and then the speedo went completely dead for the last 10 minutes of driving.

Immediately after that I noticed the car surging intermittently. Not like a revving engine, more like a "getting power, not getting power" thing.

Lastly as I was parking, the power window acted like it didn't want to go up and in fact I had to "assist" it or it wouldn't have closed.

Any ideas?


Modified by grinder at 7:39 AM 4/15/2007

 

Battery is very low, either because it won't take a charge or it it isn't getting one from the alternator. Also, check your cable connections on the battery, and the end of the ground where it bolts to the trans.

 

I agree, Low Battery voltage; you need to have 12.5 volts to the ECU for the engine to run correctly.
You might try smacking the ALT to see if the Battery light goes off. If that happens you can usually replace the brush pak in the back of the ALT, and run again another 100k miles on it.
Brush pak costs around $30 at the dealer

 

Thanks for the replies!

 

Update:

After testing both the alternator and battery I replaced both and the car ran fine for the rest of the day.

After sitting overnight I took it on a short 10 minute drive the next morning...

The windshield wipers were slooooow.

Then, the stereo went on and off 2 or 3 times.

Then, the fan speed for the heat and a/c went out.

Last (and worst), the car started stumbling/dieseling about 3 blocks from the house. As I made it into the driveway the check engine light started to come on.

It seemed like the alt and battery did the trick until it sat overnight. Now I'm back to square one.

Any ideas what I could be dealing with here?

 

More info:

Want a good laugh? The ground wire on the negative terminal was disconnected (I don't know how) from the post since before the new battery was replaced. I saw the wire just sitting free while removing the old battery and stupidly didn't reconnect it.

Now its reconnected but of course the starting, engine stumbling, no accessories problem continues.

Could it be the ECU? I tried to reset it by removing the neg terminal for 30 minutes but the car won't run with the battery disconnected, and leaving it for 30 minutes off didn't help. The alternator, again, is brand new.

It looks like in replacing the battery and alternator I'm fixing symptoms and not the actual problem, although in each case the car ran great until it sat overnight.

Hoping the collective knowledge here can lead me in the right direction.



Modified by grinder at 1:19 PM 4/15/2007

 

*bump*

 

your obviously not getting a charge you said after a new battery it ran good of course but then the battery got drained, ive had this problem before, and it was due to corrosion

replace your wires or terminals...

 

smallpox:

Would it cause the stumbling engine also?

The reason I started thinking ECU was that a stumbling/surging engine was one of the symptoms of a faulty ECU.

 

yes it would. im like 99 percent sure its not your ecu.
check all your wires looks like something to the alternator man