Lights dimming.. OVercharging?

[dfgu]

I did a few searches on the forum already to try to find my answer, but I'm still not sure what is going on...

Yesterday while i was idle, the car started to lose power.. Lights started dimming, radio shut off, then i drove the car around the block so I can open up the hood, and the car was stuttering.. It came to the point where all my headlight just shut off.

I shut off the car, waited a few minutes to try to check to see what's going on.. The altenator is new (when i bought it from the previous owner 2k miles ago).

I turn the car back on and it still has no power... I pop the battery cover to check the water.. water is good...
THen i open the throttle all the way a few times, then for some reason, the car was back to normal...
It was only normal for a few hours (stopped, had dinner).. On my way home, the lights kept getting dark then bright, dark then bright...

This morning, i used a volt meter to test the battery.. It said 13v???.. then i turned on the car and it was reading almost 17v...

It seems the alternator is overcharging, but if it is, why would my car lose all power like it did in the beginning?

I have a 91 eagle talon tsi awd a/t...

 

[ACKERSON]

If it is actually 17 volts then the voltage regulator inside the alternator is not working properly. The electronics in your car are designed to run on approximately 10-15 volts. If you have 17 volts then that could be a problem. I would replace the alternator if it is in fact pushing 17 volts.

 

[dfgu]

If it is actually 17 volts then the voltage regulator inside the alternator is not working properly. The electronics in your car are designed to run on approximately 10-15 volts. If you have 17 volts then that could be a problem. I would replace the alternator if it is in fact pushing 17 volts.

The weird thing is.. IF it was really overcharging.. Why would everything start looking power? Lights were dimming, radio shut off, headlight was very dim, wipers moving very slow...

 

[nuggets]

i started to notice that my headlights and dash lights get dim when in nuetral or low idle then get brighter as i start driving.....

 

[luv4turbos]

It sounds like your alt. is going bad. Mine did the same things when it went out.
A week later it was gone. I only had it for about 3 months when it died.
Ask the guy you bought it from if he still has the reciept for it and where he bought it. Then get it replaced.

 

[slowAWDTSi]

Replace that alternator, like everyone else said. Just because it was replaced before dosent mean it was replaced with a new one. It was prolly a cheapo reman. With those its win or lose. Another reason everything looks to be goin haywire may be the fact that it is leaking AC vlotage to the battery. Stick a AC volt meter on the batter terminals while it is runnign and measure the voltage. Normal AC is between 15 and 150 mv . Anything much higher than that your battery and other Electrical devices wont last too long.