about 15 mins into my 45 min drive to work this mornig all my warning lights came on as if the car had stalled. but it didn't i was still driving. so i pulled over to check under the hood to see if anything looked wrong or out of place. i didn't see anything and i was running late for work. it started right back up but all the lights were still on and stayed on till i got to work and shut the car back off. after work my car started right up no lights came on and they didn't come on the whole way home. what could have caused it to do that?

 

The White/Black wire on the back of the alternator runs to the alternator warning light relay in the CPU which houses a Yellow/Blue wire that runs to the dash idiot light unit. When the key is turned to on and the engine is off the alternator emits a ground signal on the W/B wire which is then received by the relay in the CPU which then sends a ground signal to the idiot lights and most of all the idiot lights turn on. Now when the engine is running the W/B wire should not be sending a ground signal, but if it does then the idiot lights will turn on. So your idiot lights coming on w/the engine running is alerting you to the notion that your alternator is having problems. It could also be a case where the W/B wire is accidentally grounding or the Yellow/Blue wire that runs from the relay to the idiot lights is accidentally grounding. There are also other possibilities, which I'm sure someone such as HAILERS will address.

 

check your alt belt too in my case when this happened my alt belt was gone lol simple stuff 1st right

 

ive got a double pulley on my alt and i just changed both of the belts. i took a quick look at the wires and didn't see anything grounding out but i'm gonna check it in more detail this weekend when i have alittle more time to look during daylight hours.

 

I would suggest a trip to parts store to have them test your alternator.

 

it's a brand new alternator and i had them check it before i left the store. that was on monday

 

It's not uncommon for people to have to try 2 or 3 alternators before they run across one that is actually worth a damn so that the item is brand new actually doesn't mean much. Some retail outfits sell crap. And that it tested good still doesn't mean much for I'm sure every alternator manufactured was tested after it was thrown together and I doubt the items go bad after shipping so some things need to be taken with a grain of salt. So where did you get yours from?

 

I got it from Auto Zone.