Electrical Problem..

[dirk3]

I have a problem with my cars electrical. While driving on Sunday I noticed my Brake, Radiator, and Battery light flickering on and off.. I had this problem before, I thought I had fixed it by tightning the battery terminals. Which were a little loose. Today I start looking around for loose grounds etc I find none. Batt, Alt, Starter all seemed OK. Putting a volt meter on the batt terminal yields me 12.5v. I go inside the car and see if I can start it. Everything powers up, I go to turn it over and I hear a pop. All power lost, now when I check the volt meter the batt still says 12.5v at the terminal. But at the connector to the terminal I get a very low reading of 1.4v. The connector still feels very tight. And when I check the volts at the Atl. I get the same reading of 1.4v. Which changed from 12.5v before I tried to start the car. I'm at a loss hear, I'm not sure what to check now. My fuses all seem to be OK. But I guess thats possibility.

Thanks for any and all input.
Eric

 

[twitch1447]

Is the starter grounded properly?

the terminal that connects to the battery may be tight on the battery but is the wire going to it completely attached or is it comming out. Any corrosion? Alternator or starter could be bad. I would check your fuses and if they are all good it is probably they alt or the starter..could be as easy as a connection or as bad as needing a new one.

 

[Eclipse45150]

I had kinda the same prob. I agree that the starter or alternator could be going, but it sounds like either the post on the battery is bad which could be on a certain point or the wire going from the battery is bad. Check the battery terminal from a few diff points to rule out the possibility of the post being bad, meanin check the top then the side, even if it is loose in the battery. If volts are still good take some sand paper and sand the inside of the terminal to rule out the corrosion (you might not be able to see it if it is there), next make sure the wire is not broke or loose at the terminal, or through the wire to the alternator/starter. If is moves/bends easily its broke. check the positive point at the starter and see what the volts are. If it is low try replacing the terminal with an aftermarket one and a new power wire.

 

[Defiant]

Those lights coming on are how DSMs tell you the alternator is dying.

 

[dirk3]

Thanks for all the replies. I'm still stumped. I put on a new positive terminal clamp. I took of the negative cable cleaned it up and put it back on. The Alt has about 5000 mi on it, but I wont rule it out. The thing that has me lost is how infrequent and intermitent it is. Sometimes the lights flicker, sometimes there full bright. Sometimes I wont see anything for ten or fifteen miles. Then all of a sudden it's back. I have a volt meter on my radar detector and when the lights flicker the voltage drops from 14.2 to about 13.8. And when the lights stay solid the voltage drops to 12.7 or so.
So at this point would it be worth while to take the alt off and have it tested or replaced. It's a Boshe "sp" from Pep Boys. With a limited lifetime guarantee. Got to love that..
Also under neath my car I found a braided mesh type wire, looks like some sort of ground. It was not connected. The connection was to my exhaust heat shield. I found the connector but the wire was not attached. So I reatached it, but still same simptoms.

Thank you very much for all your help. I really hate electrical problems..

 

[DSM4me44]

i had the light flickering problem. I then attributed it to that my 100 amp circuit breaker (those big things in the fuse box under the hood) the blue one, was blown. Doubt thats what it is but i thought id throw it out there

 

[Defiant]

And when the lights stay solid the voltage drops to 12.7 or so.

Which is straight battery voltage. Alternator remains Suspect One.

 

[Rice_is_nice]

sounds kinda like a bad alternator connection... you should take it to a autozone or somewhere like that. they can test your alternator battery and starter all for free then go from there

 

[dirk3]

I'm taking the alt out today. See if that fixes it thanks for all the help.. damn remans...

 

[dirk3]

Thanks again everyone for your help.. I replaced the Alt. today and so far all the lights are gone...I hope this one last a little longer than the last.

 

[Quasimondo]

If you bought it from autozone, it won't.

 

[tsunari]

Just a quick chime-in . . . when my '97 GST started to do this, I pretty much went through everything as I'm sure most people do . . . loose battery connections, etc . . . nothing came up.

Turns out, the big grey plug on the alternator was visibly plugged-in, but apparently not quite all of the way. Pulled it out, made sure there wasn't any crap preventing it from plugging in stuck somewhere, then firmly pressed it back in until I got a solid *click* out of it.

Haven't had a problem since . . . that was 3 years ago.

 

[Lithium_31]

I had a very very very similiar problem with my car, my lights would brighten and dim at weird intervals, it ended up being a bad voltage regulator that is built into our alternators. When I went to have it tested, it passed the first time, failed on the voltage the second time, then failed across the board the third time it was tested, the fourth time it passed again????? I don't know what the #### was wrong with it, but after I replaced it the problem went away.....