Well my buddy got lucky and had the car actually working flawlessly for about 3 solid weeks. Of course, this was too good to be true, so the universe had to balance everything out and gave him a ticket for his upper windshield tint, and today the brand new alternator just decided it didn't want to work all the time.

Here's the problem. When it works it delivers a clean and full 12-13ish volts. But every now and again, it just seems to shut off and forces the car to run on battery power alone. We almost got stranded out in the rain when it dipped to 8.5 volts with about 15 minutes left to go in the journey. Luckily it decided it wanted to work again for about the next 10 minutes. But the last 5 were back on battery.

We're going to look around for corroded or loose connections tomorrow, but anyone able to point us in the right direction would sure be helpful.

 

where are you measuring this voltage?

 

There's a Voltage gauge installed so we are able to monitor while driving. Not sure exactly where the gauge is reading off, but it doesn't seem faulty. The interior lights start to dim when the voltage drops and the clock becomes almost unreadable. Then when around the 8 volt mark the ABS light comes on. I'm assuming the low voltage is making the system fail. And finally the oil pressure, AFR and Voltage gauges all start to reset and turn off because of the low voltage. So I think this rules out a faulty gauge.

Strange thing about this is the battery light on the dash didn't come on once.

 

likely a grounding issue...

 

Does the light come on with the engine off key on? Double check the wire going to the alt and make sure it is tight.. Check your ground from the battery to the body and check the ground going from the body to the engine

 

Not sure, I'm not the one starting the car usually, but I will check.

Sounds like we've got some good places to look. And now that it's not pouring down rain, we can actually get these all checked out. see if we can solve this problem. Thanks guys

 

He got a ticket for the tint?!?!?! must have been on base, cause i've never been hassled for that. I've been stopped, but they NEVER say a thing about the tint.

The volt gauge reads from the power to the CD player if i recall correctly...also, if you fold down the rear seat, the capacitor for the amp has a voltage display on it that reads directly from the battery. it'll tell you what voltage is coming to it at rest and after start up. if it's getting low, the top of the cap will start flashing.

I dont understand where these issues are coming from, and I really do feel terrible about it. I never had an issue with that car for the 3 and half years I owned it, so I dont get why all of a sudden they are cropping up.

 

it happens...

 

yea, I sold VW TDI that i bought from new, i had babied it, ran perfect, some guy buys it for a real deal then starts phoning me a few days later complaining of all kinds of problems that I never experienced. Then I ask some good questions and I find out his kid is driving the car and well who knows what he's done. I cut the moron off after that call.

Not insulting the new RA owner, just sayin' Roblaza has been an upstanding guy on these forums and stuff happens...

 

I appreciate the kind words boys, but it doesn't make me feel an better about the fact that these problems are starting to crop up now out of the blue...

 

Motor through it brother, the universe will throw you a bone. Maybe a lose wire somewhere? Id say though that Crans is most likely correct. Maybe the ground came loose?

 

shouldnt there be ~14.8v with the car idling...?
not ~12-13v..?

i havent checked mine since i had starter issues last(knock on wood)...but that i think tells u something off the bat...

 

Yup, that's what he told me (windshield was the problem, the rest was fine). He's fighting it of course, we checked out the transport laws and we couldn't find anything that said anything about the windshield at all actually. Worst case scenario he pays the ticket and we take off the tint.

Voltage off the CD player, that's probably why it's always seemed to indicate a little low. I as well thought it was supposed to be 14+ but this is likely the culprit.

We tried to work a little on it last night. Just picking random contacts that we were able to trace, sanding them down, and putting them back together. It's been raining for the past entire week and now its snowing so work has been basically non existent. I'm sure it would be done by now if we actually had either some good weather or a garage, lol. We couldn't get it started to test if it worked though. Push starts suck BTW, lol.

Don't worry Rob. Were taking good care of it, and it's an old car, sometimes these things happen. You can check out the build thread that's up if you want to see some of the small things we've done to it. All good stuff, nothing tacky. Repainted the brakes, cleaned up the headers, cleaned up the headlights mounted the bass control in the glove box, re-sprung the shifter. Just restoration work and general cleaning.

We're pressing through. Just a general noob question though. Where are the battery and engine ground exactly?

 

Look directly down near the left side of the engine near the bottom of it. Take a look at this diagram



I'll check mine when I leave work to see if I'm correct.

yeah, directly to the left of the motor, can't miss it.

 

Great diagram, very helpful. Unfornutally, it didn't help whatsoever. The car is still broken

We're thinking of just taking it to mitsubishi. Unless of course anyone has a ta da moment