Some electrical problems... think its the alternator

[slipstream808]

Well, long time not post! But down to business. This is on my 90 Talson TSi here...

So, yesterday I'm driving along and I start to get up in 3500RPM region while decently flooring it and the car bucks BAD. I let off it and it seems all right, but as I'm driving home I start to notice the idle hunting around 2000 RPM's. Yay. Well I limp her home. Its annoying becuase the car is fine above 2 grand but get there and it just bucks like crazy. Does NOT want to go below that point.

I pop the hood. I hear fizzing. The batter is bubbling. OK. Battery might be dead but I think there is another problem. I notice on the drive home tonight that the fuel pump is really high pitched. Also... the headlights don't work. Even the high beams flickered and that was it. I had no option so I had to turn the flashers on and drive the mile home from work and hope no cops are there. Streets were dead so I wasn't too worried about other cars.

So now I have no headlights, a car that doesn't like to go below 2 grand AFTER it warms up, and a bubbling battery. I'm thinking the alternator is going or gone and putting out too much voltage and has taken somethings with it. I'm not gonna be able to drive really for fear of other things going.

So, I'm gonna go through the Chiltons and try and test it in the morning, but I'm trying to figure out why the headlights are now gone and what could be causing the horrible idle surge.

 

[BrokenTsi]

I've seen alternators put out 20+volts because they were bad, thus causing the batteries to bubble. Take it to autozone to get it tested.

 

[slipstream808]

Well! So much for that alternator test!

I started the car after getting a decent ground hooked up, went to hook up the multimeter to the "B" wire on the alternator to test the voltage and BOOM!!! Battery blew up!

Got all over me an the car. Now I have to go to work. Gotta hike it. This is getting worse by the moment.

 

[slipstream808]

OK, so update.

Got the new battery and alternator in. All good. Seems my theory of bad voltage signals was probably right. Its running back at normal.

Still gotta track down the headlight issue though. No fuse problems. They are all good. I'm gonna buy new headlights and see if that is the issue or not.

 

[Twistaye]

With the battery exploding and the alternator crapping out bad enough to make the battery explode I might expect some wires to be damaged, check all the wires going to the headlights, see if any wires may have been damaged. Thats nuts though, the battery exploded on you? You got battery acid on you? Damn man you got lucky, I've seen some bad stuff happen when a battery explodes... Glad you're alright, we have enough DSMs breaking down, we need all the DSMTuners we can get !

 

[slipstream808]

*Sigh*

After checking the fuses in the car to see if there was an issue i cleaned up. Well, since there was no issue I decided to go out and but a new headlamp thinking that was the problem. BUT!

New problem... car wont turn over. Checked the fuses again. Good. Fuel pump goes when the clutch is down and key is turned over. So the car is getting power.

All I did was pull out all the driverside fuses after the car started and check them. Then I put them back in. I'm confused now.

 

[slipstream808]

Well, starter is good according to Autozone testing.

Maybe there is some issue with the anti-theft system? I pulled the relay on that though so I dunno... I'll take any suggestions.

 

[slipstream808]

OK, I installed the starter and hooked it all back up. And it worked. Till....

I turned it off and put a fuse in for the cigarette lighter. Now it wont start AGAIN. I just have no clue anymore. Maybe I'll try the starter relay. I dunno where it is though on a 1g.

 

[slipstream808]

Well this baby is resolved. I guess taking off the terminals with all of their corrosion cause a bad connection. So I took the dremel to them until they shined. Car started up better than ever. Thank GOD!

Now to get some new headlights...