cubsfan24 Posted June 22, 2009 Report Share Posted June 22, 2009 Yet another problem with my brothers 1994 Buick Regal GS with ~129k on it. Had to jump it last night because he drained the battery after listening to the radio during his break at work. Anyways, I jumped it and I drove it on the interstate and noticed the voltage reading on the dash was at slightly under 13 volts. It stayed right around there and went back up to normal 14 volts or so when I parked the car and it was idle. So today I took the alternator and battery to advanced auto ports and both tested fine. The battery was new this past winter and the alternator is original as far as I can tell. I then took the entire car and they ran there charging system test and it is showing a constant .28 amp draw with everything off. Also when the car is started the voltage drops way down. The guy at advanced says there is a short somewhere maybe on the starter? My brother had to go to work so I didn't have time to look at the wiring on the starter. Here is a scanned image of the test sheet http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/8453/testftc.jpg When the car is idle the volt gauge is right where it should be but when you start driving it fluctuates quite a bit and when you turn the air on it drops nearly to 13 volts and fluctuates even more. Also when you turn your turn signal on every time the bulb flashes it will drop the volts down a couple volts. Although the car has been doing this since we got it 4 years ago. Any ideas on what to check? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xtremerevolution Posted June 22, 2009 Report Share Posted June 22, 2009 Check wiring from the battery to the starter, battery to block, battery to chassis, and the alternator wire. If those look good, have the alternator tested. Fluctuations like those aren't normal. I had a similar issue when my alternator went bad. It would produce current to run the car, but would have issues from time to time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slick Posted June 22, 2009 Report Share Posted June 22, 2009 You need to pull each fuse and do a current draw test on each circuit. Kind of sucks, but thats the proper way of finding your problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cubsfan24 Posted June 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2009 Check wiring from the battery to the starter, battery to block, battery to chassis, and the alternator wire. If those look good, have the alternator tested. Fluctuations like those aren't normal. I had a similar issue when my alternator went bad. It would produce current to run the car, but would have issues from time to time. The battery cables and the cable to the alternator seems to be good. Did your alternator test good on the auto parts store machine? I already had the alternator tested alone and it was "good" according to the machine. But it seems that it is acting weird when the car isn't idling. Slick: how do you go about checking current draw? Do you pull the fuse and put your multimeter in which mode? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leadfoot Posted June 22, 2009 Report Share Posted June 22, 2009 I have had to make them test mine 4 or 5 times until it fails to get it warrantied out. When it finally failed and smoke came out the guy said "Wow, you're right. I didn't know they could have intermittent problems." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slick Posted June 22, 2009 Report Share Posted June 22, 2009 Pull the fuse, put each lead on each terminal. Be sure your test leads are in the amperage/current ports, and put the meter in the A with the solid line over it (~ is for AC, our cars are DC). If there is a current draw, you'll see it. But be sure everything is off, or you will most likely blow up your meter! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xtremerevolution Posted June 22, 2009 Report Share Posted June 22, 2009 When my alternator was bad, the tester said it was good but I had it replaced anyway and my problems went away. I decided it was bad when I tried to jumpstart someone else and my car died and wouldn't turn back on again. We ended up getting stranded facing each other halfway down a 500 foot icy gravel driveway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slick Posted June 22, 2009 Report Share Posted June 22, 2009 Hey, I'm just telling him how to properly check to see where the small current draw he is seeing is coming from. If he wants to throw an alternator at the problem, which may not fix it, thats his choice. However, I wouldn't waste my money on something that I'm not sure is bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xtremerevolution Posted June 22, 2009 Report Share Posted June 22, 2009 Hey, I'm just telling him how to properly check to see where the small current draw he is seeing is coming from. If he wants to throw an alternator at the problem, which may not fix it, thats his choice. However, I wouldn't waste my money on something that I'm not sure is bad. I know, I wasn't discrediting or downplaying your suggestions or advice, just answering the question he asked a while back and giving my own situation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slick Posted June 22, 2009 Report Share Posted June 22, 2009 http://flashoffroad.com/electrical/Batteries/BatteryDrain.html Same concept, except instead of doing it between the cable and the post, do it between the two terminals of where the fuse plugs in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cubsfan24 Posted June 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2009 lol, I didn't mean to start a fight. Ok, I will test the fuses to see if I can see where the current is getting drawn from. My first thought when I saw the car doing this was the alternator was going bad. I might throw 20 bucks for a used one at the junk yard. I am glad to here that a alternator can test good but actually be bad because the guy at advanced auto parts said if it tests good there is NO WAY it can be bad. Do you think I have two things going on here? A alternator that is going bad and a loose ground wire somewhere? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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