Electrical Gremlims

[JakeMetz63]

Alright, Im having some electrical problems that I cant seem to fix. My car never wants to start. If I have the fan on when I try to start the car, it wont. The headlights dim very much when the car is being started. Usually it just clicks once or twice when I turn the key before it starts. When I put my turnsignal on, the RPMs will sometimes jump about 1k with the ticking of the light.

 

My car has a new alternator, well it came with the engine and I guess it had been sitting in Cousino highschool for a few years... but does sitting for years make an alternator go bad? And a new battery. Ive cleaned/tightened all battery connections as well. Does anybody have any ideas? I have an SES light on too, but OBD 1.5 is lame and wont let me use the paperclip trick.

[White93z34]

well take to autozone and get your charging system checked out, sounds like you have a weak battery and / or a bad alternator.

[3pt1lumina]

code the SES first. My guess is a weak battery for starters but I think the problem may lie deeper than that. Autozone/Advance will code that bad boy for ya.

[Crazy K]

I've seen the same thing of guages jumping when power is used. the way the guage works is it 'balances' betweeen the voltage created by a sensor and the voltage in the car, so spurts of low power cause an atificailly high voltage reading from a sensor. But what is important is that it turned out my alternator was giving out the right voltage, but low amps. Make sure that they the used the wheelie cart machine that checks for both, An idiot at advanced auto checked my voltage ONLY with a mulitmeter and walked away saying it was ok.. The advanced down the street pisses me off. Bad service on 3 of 3 visits. good luck.

[SigEpCutlass]

well take to autozone and get your charging system checked out, sounds like you have a weak battery and / or a bad alternator.

 

get that looked at before it gets worse or leaves you stranded!

[JakeMetz63]

Since the alternator only has about 5k miles on it, and the battery only 2 months im going to be upset if its one of those 2. Ill take it to autozone tomorrow after classes and let you guys know.

[slick]

Are you just taking the whole car there to have it checked, or pulling the alt. out and taking that in?

 

If you need some tips on replacing the alt, I have it down to 40 minutes or so. Just let me know when you get back into town.

[SigEpCutlass]

well he's probably not just going to pull the alt. He'll probably have the battery checked while he's there. Hell if it's defective and that new maybe he can get a new one for free.

[JakeMetz63]

Went to autozone today, they couldnt pull the obd1.5 codes. I had them test my battery first, it drops down to 10.5 volts for some reason during the test, but then goes back up to 12. They tested the alt next and he said it was puttting out a good level as well. So I dont know! Im probably going to get some new battery cables and clean the connections again while im at it. Plus the guy said I probably need a new starter, since it clicks when trying to start... but I was figuring that was because of the voltage drop.

[Crazy K]

perhaps you need to try replacing the existing line on the back of the alt with a new one run right to the battery remote post, something I'n considering doing on my cars.

Has anyone tried this and can recommend good info on how to do? I also understand you may need to upgrade the ground? Links welcome.

[slick]

I've done both the grounds and the pos. cable's in 4 guage wiring.

 

Grounds:

Battery to Block

Battery to Chassis

 

Positive terminals:

Battery to Aux. Post

Battery to Alternator

Battery to Starter

[JakeMetz63]

Thats definately going to be one of my winter break projects. What gauge is stock? About how much length in wire do you need?

[slick]

Stock is anywhere between 8 and 10 guage.

 

I probably used over 25 feet of 4 guage wire. Be sure to pick up some decent quality stuff, same with the terminals you will use. Just be sure that a 1/2" drill bit can fit in the eyelit of the terminal, because a lot of the bolts you use are pretty damn large in diameter.

[Crazy K]

The factory harness does have fusible links. any fuses that you've added to prevent a short or fire? and what should their amp load be?

[slick]

If you want to add a fuse, you COULD put a 150 amperage fuse in line from the alt to the battery.

 

That, or atleast get a fuse that matches the max load output on the alternator, and put that in line.

 

I have heard of people running theres with no inline fuse for several years with no problem what-so-ever. I personally do not have a fuse inline in mine yet, mainly because the fuse holder and fuses for something with that amount of amperage is pretty damn expensive. But.. It is on the list of stuff to buy with my Xmas money.