Put my car in park, turn on the AC, and now i have low batte

[slick]

Yeah, car drove fine yesterday. Little rainy outside, no biggy. So, we are heading out to my buddies place last night, need to stop for beer. So, i pull into the gas station, and put the car in park, but didn't shut it off because my friend that was with me was only going to be inside for like a minute. Started to get hot, so I turned on the AC. No biggy, done this several hundred times before. Car acts normal. All of a sudden, my battery light flickers in the cluster. I look at my guage, the voltmeter is showing only about 1.5-11 volts. I'm like what the hell. This is abnormally low for my car. So, i turn off the AC, and shut my car off. I figure, eh, its been raining like hell, maybe a little water got on the belt. So, my friend gets back in the car, and i turn it back on after a few minutes. Still sitting at the same voltage. By this time, the rain has stopped, and where we had to drive was right across the street. So, I pull in there, and still figure wet belt.

 

Come out a few hours later, turn on the car, and its sitting around 11.5 volts or so. After a minute or two of running the car, the volt guage is creeping up to normal, so I figured it was fixed. Put the car in Reverse, the volts drop back down to where they was. I like what the hell.

 

Drive home, come upstairs, and go to bed. I figure, ok, somethings up, not sure what the fuck it is. Go outside a few minutes ago to go to work, still really low voltage. Car starts perfectly fine. Doesn't crank like hell if it was a low battery or anything.

 

Any ideas? I thought about unhooking the neg. terminal for a few minutes, then doing an idle relearn afterwards. Also going to take my multimeter with my car running and test to see if it is charging or not.

 

Thanks,

 

Chris

[GP1138]

You better hope your alt isn't going out. Though you should have no trouble changing it, since you're the alternata masta!

 

Other than that, could something electrical have fucked the alt up when you switched the A/C on?

[DOHCRagtopguy]

Dude, I had the exact same symptoms on my Olds last month. It was the alternator. At idle, voltage just kept dropping slowly. Driving, it was ok. Finally got to the point that it barely kept up, I got the alternator rebuilt for 95 bucks, now it's fine. With full load + A/c it stays right at or just under 13v at idle in drive.

 

Fucking heat is killing alternators left and right. Two of my friends at work had them burn out in the last 2 weeks.

[slick]

I'm heading outside right now to check on a few things:

Reset ECM

Checking all grounds

Taking my multimeter to my battery with the car running to check to see if its charging

 

Then I'll go from there.

[supreme_style21]

GM alternators go bad?

[GP1138]

GM alternators go bad?

 

:shock: :shock: :? :? That'd be news to me.

[supreme_style21]

 

Fucking heat is killing alternators left and right. Two of my friends at work had them burn out in the last 2 weeks.

The heat is rough on those 3.4's.... no real air circulation where they've got those stuffed.

[Dannymik]

I agree with above, alternator on the good ole 3.4

[1990lumina]

Yeah, you might as well check the voltage output with full load to see what's up.

 

At least your guys' cars' dummy lights work half ass. When my alternator decided to take a shit the volts light was on for 5 seconds before the engine died :?

[88Regal Limited]

[slick]

Welp, heading outside hoping to see what the problem may be.

[Dannymik]

Welp, heading outside hoping to see what the problem may be.

 

may the DOHC god be with ya

[slick]

Well, first popped the hood, and checked the voltage- 12.20 volts. So I'm like ok, start the car, and then its sitting at 11.88 volts. Not a humongous drop in voltage. The thing is, it seemed to stay constant. So then I turned on the AC for more of a load. It dropped down to 11.47, then 11.46, then shot UP to 11.70, and pretty much stayed there. I'm going to assume its the alternator on this one, and do it tomorrow afternoon once I get off of work. I have too much stuff to do this morning before work to get it done, that, and I need to see if one of the guys living here has a few things I can use (in the midst of moving, I have lost my tire iron and a few other small tools ).

 

But, on a good note, checked the timing belt. Perfect condition. No cracks, frays, nothing.

[chadz34]

My car has already had an alternator replaced and look at my mileage. GM alternators are the shit!

[slick]

My car has already had an alternator replaced and look at my mileage. GM alternators are the shit!

 

You didn't do it yourself?

 

Anyways, going to do it tomorrow afternoon. I think I'm going to start the timer on my cell just to see how fast I can do it!

[jeremy]

 

Anyways, going to do it tomorrow afternoon. I think I'm going to start the timer on my cell just to see how fast I can do it!

 

I say it will be less then 40minutes

[HokemBokem]

Yea try and make a record

[1990lumina]

Yup, gotta love our alternators.

[slick]

Yup, gotta love our alternators.

 

Your's is easy. My car is a 3.4.

[Dannymik]

Yup, gotta love our alternators.

 

Your's is easy. My car is a 3.4.

 

so Slick, your record for changing an alt on a DOHC, is it a sober or drunk record? You seem to like sipping on grandpa's cough medicine quite often :alcoholic:

[slick]

45 minutes SOBER with white93z34.

 

I'm going to see if I can do it by myself in 45 minutes. Hell, I'm going to see if I can do it faster.

[slick]

Well, I'm gathering all the stuff right now to do the alternator. Once I have everything sitting there, I'm going to get a glass of water, come back outside, and start the timer.

[digitaloutsider]

I can hardly contain myself!

[1990lumina]

Me neither

[jeremy]

it's been almost an hour...