charging system..?

[xioca]

Alright so coming down an onramp and my car began to bog down, pulled to the side of the road and it died. Lights dimmed when I attempted to turn her over. Got out and looked at the alt. belt, a little loose but not too bad. Called a friend up and charged my battery while I looked over the car. Nothing that stuck out, no loose connectors, plug wires tight, t-belt tight so I was like alright sweat. Drove it to my girls house, about 3.5 miles and hooked it up a charger and it was pulling 10 amps so it was almost dead. Tightened the alt. belt and left it there for the night.

Tomorrow I'm picking up a new battery because the current one came with the car, so don't know it's age. The alternator is maybe 6 months old and still shiny, no grease, oil, or water on it when I checked it. Although it acts like a bad alt. because my car should have ran on the alt alone. So i'm just asking if any of you had any ideas to what my problem is?

I know exessive heat will kill and alt. , but I run with a heatshield. Although yesterday I replaced mine with a custom 16 gauge sheet metal one. Still I wasn't boosting so I shouldn't have put out that much heat.

By the way I had a silver first gen drive by me with an exhaust, not even slowin down, so much for that dsm'er... punk.

 

[01QuadDak]

Aftermarket alternators cna fail at any time.
On a side note, ANY alternator can fail at any time.
Check the output voltage of the alternator at idle, and then at cruising speed.

 

[Froyd79]

Check the Alt. fuse. It will still run off the Battery and not thrown any CELs.

 

[xioca]

Already checked the alt fuse and it doesn't look broken. I might as well pull it and check it with a voltmeter though.

 

[xioca]

Well I put a new battery in her today and will be driving it home. I ran it at idle and it was pulling around 14v at the battery so it doesn't seem to be the alternator.

 

[xioca]

And now i'm stumped. The old battery was taken in for a core charge and it was perfectly fine. So I checked the alt. and it was putting out 14.8'sh volts at the alt and about 14.4 volts at the battery. Turned on the lights and heater and it dipped down a bit, but right back up. So I take it it's not my alternator or my battery. I read through my Hayne's and it said that if I unhook the negative grounds from the terminal neither should be pulling anything with the car off. Yet one is pulling 12v, so I take it I have a short and am draining my battery? Yet I don't understand how that would cause my car do die while driving, shouldn't my alternator have kept it running?

The only thing electrical that I have done lately is a high low boost switch with the bcs, and thats wired to a fuse that is only on with the ignition. I guess I need to start pulling fuses to look for it.

 

[91 Turbo Mitsu]

I really think you fixed your own problem by tightening the alt belt. When this is loose the alt cant charge properly because the belt will slip. If you have 14 volts at the battery with it running and you have replaced the battery I think you are fine. Travis

 

[xioca]

The belt wasn't very loose in the first place, and it wasn't squeling. If the was my only problem that'd be great. Accoding to the Hayne's manual though there shouldn't be anything going through the ground terminals with the car off. Is that correct?

 

[dieseltech]

Not exactly sure what you are talking about in your last post. If it's parasitic load then yes, you car is supposed to have parasitic load. Anything with a memory will draw some from the battery even when your car is off. You don't measure parasitic load with voltage though, you read how many milliamps is being drawn. I don't have the specs in front of me at the time, but if you're drawing 1 amp or more then you are drawing too much.

 

[Defiant]

Bolt down the battery so it can't short against the strut rod or hood.

 

[hosser37]

i have the same problem, driving car home and it died... replaced alt and still will not charge or keep the car running.. i heard it could be my ecu.. its a 95. im gonna check the stats with a multimeter today, any progress with your issue?