etrnal1

Ok ive searched through and read just about every alternator thread in here and cant find a similar problem as the one im having. With that being said basically the alternator is not charging the battery. Pulled both the alt. And battery off and had tested. Alt tested good at 14.8 volts. Battery was bad so had that replaced. Now with new bad, tested good alt, at rest i get 12.5ish volts. At idle im getting 10.5 to 11 volts. Rev the engine a bit and can see the voltage climb to about 12.5. All fuses are good. Pulled ground wire off and testedfor amp draw and got .02. So nothings shorted and draining power. All battery terminals were replaced with new battery as well and have made sure there good connections. Whats my next step in locating whats pulling power away from battery while running?

02modlanceroz

iTrader: (2)

It sounds like you're runnin only off the battery. Without the vehicle running you should be at 11-12 volts. With the vehicle running you should be around 13.8-14.2 volts. I had a similar issue on mine where sometimes it would charge and sometimes it wouldn't. The voltage regulator was sticking. I'm willing to bet that if you replace the alternator you'll be good to go. I actually had a lifetime warranty from autozone on mine. Their machine said it was good, but all it checks for is to make sure the volts are where they should be and at the time they were. I got my free replacement and haven't had an issue since.

etrnal1

yes it ended up being the alternator which is what i was pointing at anyways but just couldnt understand why it was testing as good. it was still putting out voltage and at high rpm's would run the car ok but at idle just wasnt enough. changed out the alternator just to see if it made a diffrence and im now at 14.5v consistant no matter the rpm. someone told me that with a good alternator there will be no fluctuation in the voltage like i was getting. that should have been my sign that it was going bad. but i did not know that. how true that is i have no idea but it makes sense i guess. i mean thats what the regulator is for?

02modlanceroz

iTrader: (2)

Glad to hear the car is running better. Yeah your voltage regulator was bad. Same exact thing that was wrong with mine. I was even able to drive for wks before i would have any problems again.