13.3V at idle, two dash lights are on.....

[perley03]

Last night on my 80 mile trip back home I noticed that my dash lights were flickering with every second. Like they would be bright for 1 sec, then dim for 1 sec, and repeated itself until I shut the car off. Also I noticed that 2 lights were on simultaneously and would flicker on and off, but not with the same sequance of the dash lights. They were the brake and low coolant light, and they both would come on and off at the same time. What is going on, I have a brand new battery with new terminals. Voltage at the terminals with car idling is 13.3V, and when it is at 3krpms it is at 13.8V
Also only in 1st gear, when I take off and get into it, it boosts up to 15psi, but the car does not pull, and the RPM's really don't climb. As soon as I shift into 2nd though, everything is fine and it pulls like it should. It just started doing this last night as well, so I figured that they were connected somehow.
Does anyone have an answer to this, because it is leaving me stumpted.

 

[Meh987]

My car did the same thing, both those dash lights would come on randomly and the dash lights would go dim. It turned out to be the alternator. It would occasionaly not charge at all. I would check your connections at the alternator, where the positive wire attaches, make sure it's got a clean connection. If it's fine, try to see if you can get a voltage reading when the dash lights come on. Also, you should get a voltage reading with a lot of loads (radio, high beams, heater, etc..) on.

 

[DGajre777]

Those 2 dash lights are a sign that your alternator is about to die. Mine did that and about 3 months later my alternator was dead.

But first, check your connections, look for blown fuses, replace corroded terminals and wires.

 

[Nanan]

My guess would be alt also, but it might also be a good idea to check your ground wires, they do go bad over time.

I had to replace nearly all of the grounding cables because they corroded apart on my 95 gsx. When the grounds go bad the car will also do the strobing thing with the lights and you will see your power fluctuate quite a bit. I went with 4gauge braided silicone jacketed wire and gold plated heavy ring terminals for my fix, all stuff from a local car audio shop.
This fix helped several of the problems I was experiencing, idle surge, WBO2 issues, flickering lights and dancing gauges.

 

[RedTurboEclipse]

Alternator

Car off battery should be 12v, when on should be 14v, turn on lights should dip a little below.

The dash lights staying on, dimming and getting brighter, is alternator warning symptom.

 

[perley03]

Well I took the alternator off today and ran to Advanced to have them test it, came out ok. I told them to run 5-8 tests to make sure, and the guy looked at me and said "it passed the test, that's all I'm doing. If you want a new one, I'll get it for you."
Well, I guess I won't be buying from them anymore. It would really piss me off if I bought a $148 alternator, come home, throw it on, and find out that ain't the problem. Maybe friday night I can convince my friend to take his off and swap for about 30 minutes to see if that is the problem.
But from what all of you told me, I'm thinking it is the alternator. Just want to make sure. I'll post the results.

 

[DGajre777]

Stay away from autozone alternators. There are a few people selling new 2G alternators in the classifieds, you could check to see if they are OEM. No one except Bosch makes 100% new alternators, which sell for about $400 last time I checked. Even the ones from Mitsubishi are rebuilt but they come with a 1 year warranty. You could take your alternator to an alternator rebuild shop and ask them to test or replace the voltage regulator. If you are spending enough money to buy a Mitsubishi alternator, do yourself a favor and pick up a high output alternator from alterstart on eBay, especially if you have an audio system in your car.

 

[RedTurboEclipse]

I replaced my friend's alternator in his 2g. We bought it at autozone.

Yes, prior to buying it, I warned him, that many members here have stated sometimes they have replaced it several times A MONTH.

The thing is, if you buy it at autozone, its LIFETIME warranty, so if it goes out, just bring it back to them and they give you a new one.. or should I saw another remanufacturered one.

Other members have stated they had no problems. So far my friend's is in this pile. We have no problems. And the one they gave us "looked" new. Very clean.

Even if the autozone is mixed reviews, since you can replace it whenever, I have no problem using theirs. If your lucky you will get a good one on the first shot. What becomes annoying is if you constantly get faulty ones before a nice one.

Alternator change in a 2g is simple though. Especially if you don't have lower ic piping in that area. Those with short route piping that go under there, will have to spend a bit more time. Still straight forward though.

 

[Littlebeeper]

years back i would never buy an Autozone starter or alternator. lately, I haven't seen problems with them. they seem to be using a good rebuilder now

 

[perley03]

So I got bored today (recovering from a hangover and didn't want to listen to the G/F all day) so I ran new grounds from the battery to the chassis and the engine block. Guess my problem was a ground wire after all. I used some left over 2ga. wire from my amp kit and silver soldered the terminals on, ground down to bare metal, and sprayed Upol acid etch primer over them to protect against rust. No more dash lights, and no more flickering guage lights.

 

[Nanan]

So I got bored today (recovering from a hangover and didn't want to listen to the G/F all day) so I ran new grounds from the battery to the chassis and the engine block. Guess my problem was a ground wire after all. I used some left over 2ga. wire from my amp kit and silver soldered the terminals on, ground down to bare metal, and sprayed Upol acid etch primer over them to protect against rust. No more dash lights, and no more flickering guage lights.

Glad to see your problem was resolved. Ground wires are not something people think of to replace but they do wear out. The factory service manual says to check and replace the grounding wires every 60k miles.


Autozone alts suck, I went with a Bosch 120 amp alt for my car after the original one failed at ~110k miles, they are expensive, I think I paid 350 for it but it has a lifetime guarantee.