alternator maybe?

[MRmeeTooxD]

well, hey guys its definitely been a while. but I ran into a strange problem. My battery light went on last night after a nice session at the gym. as soon as I noticed it I checked underhood everything seem fine. I checked the fuse on battery and its still good. So I took my ass to autozone to use meter on battery and alternator. The car drove fine there so here goes nothing I checked battery an the machine read its good. In order to check alternator the machine will ask to start vehicle, witch got starter test out the way. But as soon as it was gonna do the alternator test the machine reads that the voltage is low. While all this was going on there is a small little relay ad I don't know what it is but it kept clipping. What do you guys think?

 

[jnava]

Is your heatshields on the o2 housing? Just asking, I had 2 alt failures due to heat. Also, if the alternator was dead, your whole car would die. The car will start sputtering and it dies completely as you car runs off of the alt. The battery is primarily to crank over the motor. Make sure there isn't any corrosion on the battery posts and make sure they are tightened. Verify that the ground line is tight.

 

[92_talon_awd]

I've had a lot more alternator problems then battery problems but just a word of advice, my last battery that went bad tested good using my dealer's battery tester, advance auto's tester, and auto zone's tester. I was completely baffled. As soon as I disconnected the battery from both terminals and tested it again, it popped up with a bad cell. The only reason I didn't suspect it was because it was only a few months old and it was an expensive one but there you go.

 

[ApexHunter]

Do you know the brand or manufacturer of alternator? Many of the voltage regulators in non-OEM units are complete crap.

After using several aftermarket re-mans, i went to a "specialist" who claimed that he used top quality VR's in his rebuilds. I bought one and went home and did yet another alternator job on the car. Note, i was always using factory heat shielding. That was the best one out of all the aftermarket units, but still sh*t the bed on the first long, hot drive. I pulled that alternator and my buddy gave me an old, crusty, mileage unknown OEM unit, which was a champ! I went back to alternator guy to return his "quality rebuild" and he put it on the bench first to test it. It tested fine @ ambient temp, and he insisted his part was fine and that my car was the problem. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif Fortunately i had driven the VR4 there with the OEM alt and so i showed him the car, idling in the sun, voltmeter at 14.1v, and showed him the torture the alternator sees due it its close proximity to the turbo/o2/dp. That got me my money back.