gage lites coming on and off. cars running great , but when i look at the clock where the lites are, the over heat lite\ exhaust\ add coolent\ charge bat\ oil level \gas \ washer lits kinda dimb on and off. like i say the cars running great have check all the fluides. everythings good . volt lite isnt going down , but thats not saying anything for theses cars , lol. just wondering if ya might think its my alt having a slight short. also i have disconnected the battery and hooked it back up thinking it might reset it self. your help would be great here. thanks gil

 

sounds like a typical fried idiot light cluster

 

what do i do?and is this common for our cars.

 

Icemark on the forum here sells re-built units.

Yes its a common problem - but you may want to wait for some others input before jumping on a new cluster, I may be wrong.

 

ive noticed that over that past month the lites been coming on more. even though i just drive her on the weekends. its getting worse. but car drives great..

 

bad alt, nothing else.

On the S4 the CPU controls the idiot lights (not the gauges), and if it does not see the alt working, the CPU turns on all the idiot lights.

On the S5 model, the circuit is built into the idiot light panel. Either way, the only way the idiot lights come on is if the alt feed wire does not have voltage on it, but rather has ground on it.

So it rules out the idiot light panel alltogether.

It is the alt, or the wires comeing from the alt are grounded.

The voltmeter should read at least 13.5 volts with the engine running (and should be 14.4 volts). If it drops under 12 volts it will trip the idiot lights on.

bad alt.

 

well we checked out the alt its putting out 14.5, can it be the alt putting out to many volts there for kicking off the lites, just wondering. by the way thanks for your replys.

 

S4 or S5??? year??? Model???

 

s5 1990, all things were good on the alt, my guys thinking the gage cluster has a short in it , because some of the other lites are bright , and the ones listed are very faint when lit up. what ya think?. thanks gil

 

I have the same problem when i floor it, the light cluster comes on but when just driving around in normal conditions its fine. its a 91 s5 gxl.

sorry to hijack.

 

well as I recall on the S5 it still needs a ground to trigger, so I'd still be looking at a bad alt.

Is the voltmeter reading 14.5 volts when the idiot lights are on???

 

well i may need a better ground for the battery the idiot that owned the car before me relocated the battery to storage bins and ran only one wire for the postive and used the chair rail as a ground

 

Ya my mechanic went threw the alt with a fine tooth comb, says its fine, so im at a loss. says its putting out 75 ampts ,and he check to see if there was ground coming from the back connection of the alt siad that was ok. plus when reved up to 2500 to 3000 rmps its putting out 14.7 volts just like u said it should. please advise on what i should next . thanks gil

 

mine does the same thing, although not consistantly. sometimes they're all out, sometimes they're all ahlfway lit, and sometimes they go between out and somewhat on depending on throttle position.

my alt is new, so thats not it.

 

well the next thing I would try is rebuilding the Clock warning panel, but in all honesty I don't think that will solve it.

Have the alts been checked for AC voltage output??? or only DC and amps??? With RX7FROMCAL I am concerned that the voltage is a 10th of an amp high, but it might have just been a Digital Multi-meter slightly out of calibration

 

Yep, see??? The trigger for the lights needs to be ground. So if the lights are coming on, there is ground on the alternators run wire.

which means, then either bad alt, or a broken wire that is shorted out

 

well in the past weeks ive replaced my fuse that controls the radio and the clock area twice the 7.5 amp one,so im sure i have a short some where, any ideas on where i should look for, ive checked for some grounds but theses dam rx7 are known for other things going on , lol thanks gil

 

pull the radio out and check your wiring

 

Ya thats what i was thinking also, will do . ill check back with ya later . thanks man

 

Depin the White/black wire at the alternators small plug. You should NEVER see all the lights on the Warning Cluster all come on at the same time again, EVER.

Unless you have a dead short in the white/black wire b/t the alternator and the warning light cluster OR the warning light cluster is scrogged.

You should be able to duplicate your warning light problem by pulling the small connector off the alt and putting the key to ON. Ground the white/black wire and the warning lights should all come on.

Bum alt imho.

 

ok on the pin its self , there a white and green wire and a white with black line on it , ground the white and black side turn on the key and see what happens and when this dose happen does that mean i have a bad alt.

 

well ive checked out the radio all seems well, im thinking about taking off the alt and putting on a new one, and if that doesnt work then its eaither the clock cluster or that wiring from the aly the the cluster. we shall see will keep ya updated, thanks gil