check engine light, and bad grounding??
 

hi, im starting up my car tonight, and all my dummy lights come on, but only seems half lit, not as bright. they are all on except, engine, door, ebrake light. my volts are usually at 14 ( i got an optima battery) but now its at 11. and so i decided to drive it anyways and see if anything wrong, then about 5-10 mins driving, my check engine light comes on, and when i gas it a little more that 1/4 it like stutters almost. like its got a bad ground or something. then when i turn my car off, and turn it back on the check engine light is off and then 5-10 mins later again they come on. any ideas what this might be?

alternator may not be charging the battery.

no the alternator is good. i know that. the lights didnt dim. and it just started out of no where tonight. could it be any fuses?

No, it's the alternator. This is exactly what my car did when it died two weeks ago. Good luck finding one, it took me 3 days of flipping throught the yellow pages to find one.

damnit, no way. great now i gotta find one. thanks

well i forgot to mention since i was in such a hurry to post it las night, that the RPMs wont drop below 1400. and las night when i turned off my car, and had my friend look under the hood, when i started it, it caused a spark somewhere around where the oil filter was. now my power windows and mirrors take forever to do anything. is it still the alt?

and if i have to replace it, would it matter if i got a tII alt or NA? i have an NA but will be having a TII motor in the next couple of weeks. or is there even a difference?

bump

Take a VOM & measure the voltage the from the alternator output to the alternator frame.
It should be about 14 volts.

Then check voltage drop from the alternator output to battery +.
It should be near 0.0 volts. If not your primary + wire is weak.

Then check voltage drop from the alternator frame to battery -.
It should be near 0.0 volts. If not your primary ground is weak.

well my volts are about below 7 now, the alt is more than likely shot. but i dont think me driving my car for 10-15 mins would cause my battery to just drain and die like that, would it?