Thread: WTF is my alternator bad?

take your battery to a auto sparky and load test the battery most accuarate way of testing it. if checking voltages have your meter on dc volts and in the 20v range if it is not a auto ranging one

97 this recentl happend to me 3 times.. and i also replaced the alternator 3 times.. whithin 2 months... i test my battry back then and it read 11.9 too.. but the battery itself by messed up and wasnt the correct one for the car.. i needed one with higher cranking amps..

i put it on an battery light hasnt come on yet..

did everyone forget that when your alty goes bad your emergency brake light and battery light come on at the same time

or is that just a b13 thing

Jensen, you are correct, if it goes out completely. From his original post, it sounds more like it is on it's way out. If it's on its way out then it won't trip the lights. I had a bad altenator in my car that wasn't keeping the system charged enough for me to start my car. It did not trip the warning lights. So it's possible that the alt is losing power.

could be the battery or a loose connection on the alternator. Check the power wire on the alternator as well. With the car running check the voltage at the battery. You should have about 13.5V or so If you have only 12 or less your alt is not charging like it should for some reason either loose connection or bad alt.

All is good for me as well. Checked the battery after a long drive, read 13.6 volts on the multi meter with the car running. I'm sure it was my lack of using my car, about once a week. When I did use it, it was a quick 3 min trip to the supermarket, or to Subway for a $5 dollar foot long.

Looks like my alternator might be bad after all. ABS light came on and the air bag light started flashing like last time. Had the dim headlights too. Went for a drive last night to pick up some dinner. As soon as I got back to my driveway, car shuts off dead. My brother is coming over tomorrow to drive me to Kragens. I think I should get a new battery too. This is going to cost me.

check the connections goin to alternator before puttin new one

Connections looked good when I removed the alternator. Going to the auto parts store tomorrow for testing. One weird thing is when I was driving yesterday morning, the abs light came on and the dash lights were dim. It was like that for about 10 minutes of driving, then the abs light turned off and everything was good again. Is that a alternator problem? Maybe last night was the final nail in the coffin for this alternator? I guess i'll find out tomorrow.

it could be. Voltage regulators going bad will often show just spurts of bad voltage, but still seem fine at other times. The other possibility is a loose belt, and I sure hope you checked that first before taking it off