alternator pushing 18 volts

[gsxitement]

i was driving home last night when my abs light starting flashing so i'm like WTF . i looked at my turbo timer and it was showing 18 volts! i pull over and start checking everything and nothing is out of order visually. i get back in the car and it was showing 11 volts, and the batt and brake light are flickering. needless to say it's gotta be the regulator, but it's a fairly new alternator. WTF
has anyone else experienced this?

 

[JKGMotosports]

Your ALTERNATOR regulator is no good, this happend to me a few times, either you can get it rebuilt, but the best thing to do is get a new one. If your alternator had warranty return it.

 

[RamenPride]

If your alternator had warranty return it.

agreed. and it's not uncommon for a rebuilt alternator to go bad shortly or just be bad off of the shelf. most of the time they "test" the voltage regulator, not replace it during the rebuild. i had a rebuilt bosch alternator and the regulator went bad about a year later.

 

[ivanr4g63]

Yeah... thats all there is to it...

Your alternator voltage regulator went LOCO.
It happened to me twice since I owned my eclipse, Also not many people recomend rebuild the darn thing, so what I did is I went to autozone and got me one of those "lifetime warranty" alternators... mine is surprisingly good, and if something happens they give me another one right away. just my .02

then again you may have another options.

 

[Snail Tuning]

at idle your voltage at the battery should be 13-14.5v if its higher your regulor is bad, same if the voltage is low. if that voltage is fine, you may have a problem else where.

 

[gsxitement]

yeah i figured it was the reg. but since it is intermittent, i thought MAYBE it was a loose connection but it was just a hope. thanks all. i guess i need to price one out. thanks again

 

[Kapok6]

Same thing happened to me. I am on my 3rd alternator in a year. The "new" ones I buy keep going bad. It actually made my battery blow the cap off when it went up to 18 volts. It's no joke man. I am getting sick and tried of always have to change my alternator, but I must say, I am getting pretty darn good at it. I can take one out and swap a new one in pretty quick. Do es anybody have a reccomended place where I can buy an alternator that won't go bad in 2 months?

 

[Burnett03]

anybody have a reccomended place where I can buy an alternator that won't go bad in 2 months?

factory new mits one.

 

[gsxitement]

well...after the batt. started to spit acid all over the inside of my car....i replaced the alt. with a new bosch one from pep-boys. 185 dollars later....the car runs fine. lifetime warranty on it too.