"Check Gages" and alternator confoundery

[Dan Vincent]

On my way home from work tonight, I stopped in at a grocery store for some food. When I left the store (I had stopped the car, and nothing was wrong), I went back to my car and took off. After I drove a bit (about a minute or so), the check gages light comes on. I look down at my dash and notice that my voltmeter is listing about 10.5 (it was in the yellow, on the hashmark between 8 and 13) and hanging steady.

I turned off my radio and heater, but left the headlights on. I managed to drive all the way from east Springfield to Westfield (about 15 miles, but in the traffic about 45 minutes to an hour's drive) with no ill effect - the meter hung at around 10.5 and my headlights and everythign else were fine, even at stops.

Now, I'm thinking this means alternator, but if the alt was going, surely I wouldn't have made it home? I even went up to highway speeds and there was no issue. The serpentine belt looks fine, and the only thing I could notice is that the blinker seemed slower (but that could have been imagination) and that maybe my instrument cluster was dimmer (but I couldn't really tell). It was fine as far as I could tell this morning, and it seemed fine driving home - no speedometer whackery or other craziness. No electrical googawery was going on. It also felt fine under load when I revved it up.

Is this the sign of a dying alternator (and that I was lucky to get home intact) or could there be something more insidious at work?

[ December 11, 2004, 07:11 PM: Message edited by: Dan Vincent ]

[hockeyman]

I would say the alternator is all-but-shot! The car was probably running off of the battery juice.

[FunkZ]

Yeah, if you have a strong battery it could run the car for probably an hour or more. When the battery gets low the gauges will start to act up, engine will start missing/cutting out, then finally die.

Use a volt meter to check the output of the alternator.

[Dan Vincent]

I'm going to the Autozone down the street to have them load test it tomorrow. We'll see what they say.

[LwnGy83]

Yeah... I had that problem w/ my 3.4L My voltage meter was low and I drove on it for like a week, and the my battery finally died b/c I was driving on batter power only (Ooops). It's probably the alternator, it's a fairly cheap fix, and it's easy to replace yourself. But definately get it checked out before you go an buy one just incase it's something else ;)

[Dan Vincent]

It was indeed the alternator. I went to autozone and they tested it and said it was bad, I bought the one with lifetime warranty, went home to install it, the car almost died! I managed to make it into a parking lot near the auto parts store. I ran in, borrowed a socket set and vise grips, and spent an hour installing it in the parking lot in the cold New England December noon.

All is well, now! Huzzah.

[REDCAM94]

when the battery dies out does it kill the battery or can you recharge it

[shenanigans]

Glad you got it fixed, but I came in late to this thread, as a heads up, check all your alternator connections before you run out and get one. My alternator to battery wire was corroded and broken, causing very low voltage charging even though the alternator was fine.


Another tell tail sign is the "ABS INOP" will kick in if your car is charging too low.

[Dan Vincent]

Originally posted by shenanigans:
Glad you got it fixed, but I came in late to this thread, as a heads up, check all your alternator connections before you run out and get one. My alternator to battery wire was corroded and broken, causing very low voltage charging even though the alternator was fine.


Another tell tail sign is the "ABS INOP" will kick in if your car is charging too low.

Yup, ABS inop will come on, various lights will start flashing.

We put the old alternator on the tester and it was toast - diodes were gone. The new one is great - all of my lights are brighter, my teeth are whiter, I've stopped losing my hair, etc. ;p

"when the battery dies out does it kill the battery or can you recharge it"

You can recharge the battery if you don't run it down too bad. I had the guy at the parts store put it on the charger while I was fixing it.

[Dan Vincent]

The alternator saga continues...

I go to my car today and I start it up and the volt gauge went all the way into the red (17.5)! I drove to the auto parts store, and swapped alternators, and the replacement remanned one had a stripped mounting thread. The guys there wound up giving me a brand spanking new alternator (not a remanufactured one) and it went in without a hitch and no voltage problems.

The brand new alternator has a few slight differences from the remanned units too - the vanes appear to be some form of aluminum, there's a brass pulley, some of the parts appear to be more substantial, etc. Hopefully it will live longer than its replacement!