Sorry for the massive amount of detail but I thought it would help diagnose the problem.



Ok, long story short, I'm on my third alternator. The p/s pump was leaking on it before and then the high pressure line went and soaked it.

No leaks now and a brand new alternator.

Now, first off, the single thin red wire that tells the alternator to provide power (not the thick one that goes to the battery) was snapped before. I bought a new clip part + wires and I repaired it with a butt connector, but that eventually came out. I tried another method, which kept fluctuating it's connection. Now, I soldered it and wrapped it in heat shrinkable tubing.

When I start the car up cold, the volt gauge shoots up to about 14-15. Then it settles to 13 on the dot. When I kick on the accesories to test if it's getting power (Lights, fogs, fans, max ac) it will sometimes stay at 13 and sometimes drop down to almost red and stay there until I give it a rev, which which will bring it up to 13 and keep it there. It's like it needs to be prompted to go there.

Now here are some symptoms that could mean something. I have a decent stereo set up but have a capacitor inline (I can read the voltage there too, it will go down to 12.8 or something at it's lowest) and don't max it out so it's not pulling thta much power. One thing is that I get a recurring noise that comes out of the rear-most pass speaker (and only that one). It is a faint whine that increases with engine rpms. THey are stock speakers connected to my pionerr deck. I heard that noise comes from being too close to the battery but my amp rack is on the back deck. The capacitor top (where the wire directly from the battery connects) to is fairly close to it though, 1ft or so, but like I said the sound is sporadic and seems to appear and disappear at random.

Also, my turn signals blink weird. They blink normal once, then do a weird "stutter" type of deal where it will kind of half flash a few times, then flash normal, and go back and forth. I've inspected the lights and don't see any of them burnt out (which usually makes the signals act funky to tell the driver one of them is out). Is there something that regulates it that could be shorting out?

Another thing, when I put my second alt in I didn't disconnect the battery and grounded out when I was connecting the battery cable to the pole. I got it in and it worked similiarly to this one, but it was ALWAYS between red and 13 (with the cap reading 12.9-13.2). That small wire was not connected at that time (that is when it snapped) but is it possible that I damaged the battery cable when it shorted?

Lastly, I soldered it after it died on me on the freeway with the unsecure connection from before. I fixed it on the spot enough to get me home but ended up draining the battery to nil and had to be jumped. I took out the battery today and have it on a trickle charger since I just remembered that it is not good for the battery to be run unless it is fully charged. I'll throw it back in tonight and check.

Thanks for reading this long *** post. If you can give any words of wisdom I be very appreciative.

 

Where did the new alt come from, what is the amperage?

 

Well, the first replacement I did was a Bosch. That one got soaked. This one is an ASE. It is stock replacement so I'm guessing it's 102 or 105 amp. I was going to get a higher output one from Ebay but just couldn't bring myself to trust it.


Some new things. Like I said, I had the battery on the trickle charger earlier. Because of that my PCM got reset of course. Both times I disconnected the battery (alt replacement and charge) the car seems to have a problem idleing after first start up. I don't know if this is because the PCM has to learn, but I've done it a few times and don't remember it it being like that. It took several minutes, until it was completely warmed up, before it would idle at 700. Before that it would dive to 200 or 500 and fluctuate.

Now, after driving it for a few hours, it seems to stay above 13, the cap reading 13.8 constantly with the defrost on. If I do certain things though like turn on the rear defrost along with A/c or operate both windows, the voltage drops quickly, and stays that way for awhile or until I rev it a bit, at which point it will level out.