Bad Alt???

[91 white tsi]

I put on a new alternator about 2 months ago to drive it home 300 miles since i had moved and it had been sitting for about 8 months prior to that becuase its one problem after another and i still dont have it running right. Well it made the trip fine but now my radar detector has a volt metter in it and its only reading10.2 volts and its a new battery as well. I put a multimeter on it and its saying its charging at 8.6 whcih i know is horrible since they are suppose to run between13.4 and 14.2. My 1981 celica runs better than this DSM and has never given me problems and the radar detector reads 13.9 volts on it. Is there anything else that might affect the charge amount. like a regulator or something like a fuse or what not. I also have a new ECU 4th head ive had on it 3rd engine short block and second turbo. THis car has cost me a ton of money and still is slower than dog pisss

 

[nelapse]

It depends, were you driving at night when you noticed this? Do you have aftermarket fog lights? you have a ton of neons or tv's or other things drawing your power? Make sure your your radardector is plugged in all the way and the male plug isnt dirty.

check the connector on the alt and make sure its not dirty, its properly seated. look for damaged wires, look for kinks in the wires.

 

[91 white tsi]

I did all that already. I didnt notice till the first time i ran the radar detector. I was driving the car for the first time with the 3rd engine 4th head trying to break them in about 10 months ago and i had to get it towed cuz after driving for like 3 hours it kept not wanting to boost and would tyr to stall the higher in the RPMs i got. I thought it was the ECU beacuse everytime it went higher than 2grand all the dash lights would come on. i replaced the ECU with an Eprom (so i was told anyway since it looks the same as the stock one) and that didnt help so i put a battery in it and drove it to the shop and check the alt and it was bad.......its now doing the same thing 10 months later. its pretty much bone stock except ported 2 g mani and ported waste gate O2 housing and cut off stock down pipe infront out the cat(loud as hell but fun) boost gauge and a turbo timer thats not installled since it was suppose to be for the car but i cant seem to find the connector its suppose to plug into. i needa a ton of sh*t to get this car decent. ANYONE near DC in VA that wants to help out a fellow DSMer.

 

[92awddsm]

Where did youn get the alt?
Im in Va and travel to F'burg and further all the time. If you cant get it taken care of, pm me and Il try to help.

 

[91 white tsi]

I got it from blacksburg autoparts down by Virginia Tech.......Im goign to try and get them to exchange it and see if that helps. I am looking to get a Blow thru MAF and FMIC and possible sheet metal or aluminum intake to try and get trid of all stock intake parts to prevent vacuum leaks

 

[awdLaunch16g]

bring it to your local auto parts stores, 99 percent of them test alternators for free. or just disconnect the battery with the motor running, if the motor dies, its the alt. although if you put a multimeter on it and its reading that low, theres a pretty good chance its junk anyways granted you arent trying to power your neighborhood with a sub-box sized power inverter in the trunk

 

[91 white tsi]

So I took the alt off and got it tested....its bad only charging at 10.8 volts as i thought.