Hey guys: I was hoping you could help me out with an electrical problem I'm having with my car.

The car was running fine when all of a sudden one day the 4WABS and Charge Battery lights came on. A little more driving and I lost the Radio and everything electric started having issues. The only thing working properly was all the exterior lights and the interior dome light. This was also accompanied by engine break-up under boost. Eventually, it got to the car sputtering from a stop and being nearly undriveable.

I charged the battery and everything was all good again, but all the hiccups would start again one by one.

Today I replaced the Battery and Alternator but the same thing keeps happening.
4wabs and Charge Batt light, loss of radio, engine breakup under boost.

Any Ideas guys? As always, all help is extremely appreciated.

-Chris

 

check the driver side wheel well and make sure your tire did not rub through the fender lining and cut the front harness wires.

 

when you replaced the alt did you make syre it was getting batt voltage on the terminal in the back? check to see if the alt is charging.

 

Definitely not the first suggestion. I'll have to check on the second. I'd imagine I would need a voltage meter to check if it's charging?

 

Talked to my mechanic, Jose Hernandez of PNC Autoworks, and he thinks it is a grounding issue. That because of insufficient grounding, the alternator is constantly charging and eventually burning itself out. What are your thoughts on this? The car ate 2 alternators....one of them in the course of about 15 minutes.

 

He could be right. Check your ground points and straps. Also check your alternator output. Charge light comes on when low batt. is indicated and that usually leads to your alternator.

Jeremy

 

Welp. I guess I give up. I added 3 grounds, put in the new alternator, same ****: Car died while driving. All same lights on. Car is going to Jose "Pepe" ASAP. **** electrical garbage.

 

EXACTLY I hate that ****...

 

Yeah...

Hard to see where those daggoned electrons are going...

 

any more on this, i too am having this same problem, have tried everything i can think of to isolate. seems like @ about 8 mins the voltage will drop from 13.4 to 11.5 and the amps drop as well....we have used amp meter to check things for current draw, searched for shorts and came up with a dry hole....i have put 3 batteries(redtop) and 7 alternators(all rebuilt by same guy).

 

Car is going to Pepe monday. I'll let you know what happens.

 

thanks, i have pages and pages of notes of what is going on and when but i can't figure out why it is going on..

 

Turned out to be that the wire from the battery to the alternator was old and crappy and not making good contact. Switched it out and all has been good since.

So the order of checking for things messed up is:

1. Battery
2. Alternator
3. Grounds
4. Wiring Harness (which is what mine was)
5. ECU

So when all said and done:

$80 Battery
$100 Rebuilt Alternator
$20 in Ground Wiring

OR

$45 to give it to Pepe and get it done right in 2 days.

O well, live and learn, I'm happy I did the grounds anyways.

 

Glad to hear

You better be at the next meet with the FD, once its all planned out.

 

Good to hear that you had it sorted out. I just started having the EXACT same symptoms as you, except that my gauge cluster lights would dim too. Have you had any issues since? Also, did you notice that this was happening when your engine warmed up? It only seems to affect me when my motor warms up (after 5-10 minutes of driving)....

 

Haven't had any problems since. Everything would dim for me. It affected it once it "warmed up" because by the time it's warm, the battery is pretty drained and not getting any power from the alternator.

 

Quick question: how did he determine that the wire was crappy and didn't make good contact? With the car off, I get battery voltage (12.6 or so Volts) at "terminal B" (the one that is fastened with a nut on the alt); I also get battery voltage at "terminal S" (the top terminal in the plug that goes to the alt).

When the car is idling, AFTER it's warmed up, the voltage at both terminals falls to 11.x Volts. I took my alt to have it checked and it checks out just fine (they checked lamp/diode trio, voltage regulator, and rectifier).

Before I replace the alt wiring/harness, I just want to know how one goes about checking the wiring itself (say, with a multimeter....) for problems. TIA

 

I'd like to know this also. Any updates?

 

When the car is off, and the battery is disconnected, you can measure the resistance between the alternator and the battery. This should be zero ohms, or something close (less than 5-10 ohms).


When the car is running, you can measure the voltage between the alternator and + terminal of the battery (one lead goes to the battery, the other lead to the alternator). It should be zero, or very low (less than 0.5V).

Some people have problems with their ground cable: you can measure this in the same way: check resistance (be sure the battery is disconnected) or voltage (when the car is on) between the battery negative terminal and the chassis.

-s-