slick Posted August 22, 2004 Report Share Posted August 22, 2004 Ok, so as of late, when coming to a stop or slowing down, i've been watching my voltage guage. About 5 to 10 seconds before she stalls on me, my voltage guage drops to about 12-13 volts(right below the halfway mark). Even if i try to give it a quick rev to get that alternator pumping more juice, the guage still doesn't go up, and she will die. The alternator was put on back in feburary or march, can't quite remember. Anyways, the symptoms when this is happening: The car is warmed up. It's seems to worsen greatly when it's wet/raining/snowing or whatever, mainly when it's wet outside. When the car is cold, she acts perfectly fine. She idles good, and doesn't die. But, once its warmed up, the idle can be a little rough. Car has new:ECM, TPS, IAC, Coil packs and ICM, new battery and block grounds, and new coolant temperature sensor. Man, it's like everytime i post in this section asking for help, i have replaced 1 or 2 more things. Do you think it may be the lower intake gasket or injectors? Any way to check? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maybe2fast Posted August 22, 2004 Report Share Posted August 22, 2004 hey I just thought of something...the alt. in the heat the voltage regulator may be malfunctioning and booging the mighty 3.4 and stalling it out. just an idea, but when I tested it, it seemed fine Maybe have a shop run a full charging system test on it, but $$$ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slick Posted August 22, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2004 Yeah, thats why i replaced the alt. the first time was because the voltage regulator was messing up. So you think it may be doing it again??? If so, I wonder if i can make a sort of heat and water shield to put up there to prevent it from happening.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maybe2fast Posted August 22, 2004 Report Share Posted August 22, 2004 don't condem the Alt. from that guess Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
99RegalGS Posted August 22, 2004 Report Share Posted August 22, 2004 Test the fusable link. Your symptoms are similar to what my cutlass was doing. How you test it. buy a 8-6 or even 4ga wire and connect it to the alt and then directly to the battery. After you do that start the car and drive it around and see if the voltage fluctuates. If it doesn't your fusable link is bad. If it still fluctuates it's probably the regulator. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slick Posted August 22, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2004 Man, if this was a pushrod, it would be much easier than done So just run a wire from the battery to the alt. and drive around? My only problem is finding big enough wire that long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
99RegalGS Posted August 22, 2004 Report Share Posted August 22, 2004 Man, if this was a pushrod, it would be much easier than done So just run a wire from the battery to the alt. and drive around? My only problem is finding big enough wire that long. I put my car up on ramps and it took ~20minutes. But you have an auto so I dunno. Yeah, basically. I just went to the parts store and bought a wire. IIRC I needed ~6 feet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slick Posted August 22, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2004 So if I got like 6-8 ft. of say 6 guage wire, it should probably reach. I know how i'll run the wire, it's just getting the wire and doing it. What exactly does the fusible link do exactly? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
99RegalGS Posted August 22, 2004 Report Share Posted August 22, 2004 It's and inline fuse in the wire that goes from the starter to the alt. But the fuse is non-replaceable, which is dumb, so you have to get a new wire if it's bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slick Posted August 22, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2004 Well that blows. How much does that sucker cost? And i bet it's fun to replace too. How big of a fuse is in there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
99RegalGS Posted August 23, 2004 Report Share Posted August 23, 2004 They arn't much. I forget how much I paid. I think it was under $8. I'm not sure what size fuse is in them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slick Posted August 24, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 24, 2004 Would it make sense that the TCC solenoid being the problem?? Any way to check it out? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black5spdZ Posted August 24, 2004 Report Share Posted August 24, 2004 I work at a NAPA and we have a hand held tester that will test your alt battery and starter, its not full diagnostics but it would give you an idea of the voltage you are puuting out and drawing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slick Posted August 24, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 24, 2004 I work at a NAPA and we have a hand held tester that will test your alt battery and starter, its not full diagnostics but it would give you an idea of the voltage you are puuting out and drawing I've had that tested allready, and it's good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4spdz34 Posted August 24, 2004 Report Share Posted August 24, 2004 Would it make sense that the TCC solenoid being the problem?? Any way to check it out? it could be. a way to check is unplug it. find out which wire in the harness goes to it and push the connector out. drive around for a few days and see if its better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slick Posted August 24, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 24, 2004 Would it make sense that the TCC solenoid being the problem?? Any way to check it out? it could be. a way to check is unplug it. find out which wire in the harness goes to it and push the connector out. drive around for a few days and see if its better. If it is that, how much of a pain is it to replace it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4spdz34 Posted August 24, 2004 Report Share Posted August 24, 2004 u gotta pull the side cover to the trans and i belive the valve body. and u need a hoist Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhiteOut Posted August 25, 2004 Report Share Posted August 25, 2004 Damnit my car is doing the same thing. While driving the idiot light will flash on and off constantly, you can see the lighting on the climate and stereo controls flicker, the speedo and tach do whatever the hell they want regardless of what speed I'm doing, and the car will stall sometimes (both at idle and a couple times while I was doing about 30mph). A charging system test says that my battery and alternator are okay, so I took it to my friends dad and he thought it was a bad ground somewhere. I suppose a fusible link is a good posibity as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slick Posted August 25, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 25, 2004 Damnit my car is doing the same thing. While driving the idiot light will flash on and off constantly, you can see the lighting on the climate and stereo controls flicker, the speedo and tach do whatever the hell they want regardless of what speed I'm doing, and the car will stall sometimes (both at idle and a couple times while I was doing about 30mph). A charging system test says that my battery and alternator are okay, so I took it to my friends dad and he thought it was a bad ground somewhere. I suppose a fusible link is a good posibity as well. Me and Josh(previous owner, aka 4spdz34) were talking, and I might be going up to his house Sunday to get mine checked out. Hopefully I'll have some news for you, and it will correspond to the problems you are having. The only difference between our two things is that my SES light doesn't come on until I stall out, but then i'm too busy trying to get it started while sitting at an intersection Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhiteOut Posted August 25, 2004 Report Share Posted August 25, 2004 Thats the only time I get an SES light too, and even then its not every time. The light thats coming on is the little battery one indicating low voltage across the battery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slick Posted August 25, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 25, 2004 Yep, mine will do the same thing. Well, hopefully both you and I can resolve our problems soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhiteOut Posted August 26, 2004 Report Share Posted August 26, 2004 The more I think about this the more I doubt that its a dead fusible link. Its a giant fuse, when those things go they go, they don't cause problems for 2-3 weeks then decide to crap out on you. I'm more inclined to think this is a bad ground some where in the engine bay since every single electrical system in the car is affected. I thought it was odd at first that the tach and speedo go nuts, but I'd imagine that the gas gauge and temp gauge would go nuts too if they weren't so electrically damped. Plus the radio has a static buzz on it, lights flicker, etc.. Anyone know where the major electrical grounds are? The only obvious ones I can find are the headlight leads. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slick Posted August 26, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2004 I should go out to my car and get some pictures real fast. I replaced the main engine bay grounds, not hard at all actually. Pictures upon request. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremy Posted August 26, 2004 Report Share Posted August 26, 2004 Pictures upon request. get some distance shots with the enkei rims Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slick Posted August 26, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 26, 2004 Pictures upon request. get some distance shots with the enkei rims Yeah, I should probably do that. Might be hard with all the cars around mine, but i'll try(it's quite dirty too, haven't driven it in like a week, I try not to). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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