Well it seems I got a problem here. At night when I'm driving I notice that sometimes in the middle my lights go dim and my heater blows weaker like it's about to die. Also when I'm idle the RPM drops low and recovers itself before stalling out. Do you guys think it might be a vacuum leak? Or could it be something else.

 

Cel?

 

No I don't have any cel on

 

alt or battery issue

 

If the alt were dying out I'd imagine that the battery/brake light would turn on as a warning.

Try cleaning your throttle body or MAF and see if that helps at all

 

My alternator died last month and the battery light did not come on, the ABS light did though.
Now I want to know what the dam battery light is for, but I have not gotten to the owner's manual to check yet.

 

my alt died last week and my battery and brake lights both came on. from what i've read having those 2 on is an indicator that the charging system is having a problem. the brake light comes on to say that the ABS has been disabled to save a bit of power

 

2006_RA Are you sure your battery light even works? The only reason it should turn on is if something is wrong with the chargin system.. Check your clamps make sure they are right look for the hose that connects to the valve cover and intake make sure it is on both sides I would think A cel would come on for a vacuum leak.. Might be a loose connection..

 

The battery light illuminates when the ignition is switched on and goes off when the engine starts, so it works, not sure how much use it is, but it works.
The charging system showed 11.something V and the battery was dying, so plenty was wrong.

 

could be a combiniation of battery being old, if its an oem battery mine finally died last year and it was fizzing out of the fill holes and a noticable burnt wire smell was in the garage.

if i t was the alternator then i would think at speeds youd be ok but then at low rpm is where you would see the most problems since the alt is meant to be able to fully charge the system at idle.

If your pulling 11v and not 14.XX and the battery is ok make sure there is no corrosion on the battery terminals or alternator and then id see about swapping the alternator out.

 

Would the alt being bad result in the idle doing down and catching itself back up?

 

if its really dropping it could be maf related. I plugged mine in once but it must not have had perfect connection somehow, casue when i started the car it sat at 3-500 and jsut wanted to stall so i pulled the plugged clipped it on agin and problem solved.

If the cahrge was bad enough that the ecu and parts arnt getting proper charge but i think youd have a abttery light or other problems first

I dont think alt being bad would casue a fluxuation like that in the idle, if the lights were going dimm and things then yes but idel i dont think i would still lean towards a dirty air fillter someithng with maf maybe a missing vacum line if you did do work o nthe car i dont remember

 

When my alternator was dying, the engine went into some kind of limp mode, and would not idle but rather remained around 1500-2000 rpms, and the response to the accelerator pedal was very weak. The engine sounded feeble, the way a Corolla or Civic sounds.

I could not get above 2500 rpms if I got even that much. By the time the battery was dead, mashing the brake pedal would stall the car, probably because it took too much electrical load to burn the brake lights.

 

Clip your Purge Valve solenoid hose. I've been posting it all over this forum, look for my recent posts.

 

Where could I find these? Sorry I'm new to these things