Dead alternator ?

[silviaz]

Ok, I know when you have a bad alternator you see the battery light and the hand brake light, mine is flashing when I put the brake, open my headlight, etc..

The only thing I find a bit weird is I hear a clicking and electrical noise coming from my fuse panel. There are 3 relay at the bottom too, ignition relay, accessory relay and main breaker.

What can be wrong ? I've just installed my SR20, everything is running fine, all accessories.... but I can't really drive it, that weird noise drives me crazy.

[270R]

to find out if you have a dead alternator turn on the car, and dissconnect the negative terminal from the battery. if the car still runs your fine if it does not your screwed... as for that clicking noise your probably have a loose connection somewhere check your fsm for a schematic... on the charging system.. in your case I would check the schematic first to track down any loose connections first. You dont want to replace the alternator and spend some $$ to find out your wiring is messed up and do not need the alternator...

[clark]

^he is right, this is the best way to deduct whether or not you have a bad alternator.

i had the SAME EXACT problem my friend.

you have a loose connection on your alternator.

for weeks i had this problem, and i found that the posotive terminal on my alternator had this plastic "shim" that separated the positive terminal and the housing of the alternator (ground). that plastic shit just corroded and crumpled thus making the connection loose. i just got some random plastic washer to replace the plastic shit that turned into dried up boogers and it fit perfect and tightened it down.

MAKE SURE YOU DISCONNECT YOUR BATTERY BEFORE DOING THIS. lol i learned this the hard way.

i searched the crap out of zilvia and found nothing, but this has got to be your problem. while you're doing this, ground the crap out of the engine, clean all ground connections too.

[ixfxi]

to find out if you have a dead alternator turn on the car, and dissconnect the negative terminal from the battery. if the car still runs your fine if it does not your screwed...


wow, great advice if you're trying to introduce a voltage spike into your car's electrical system.

search, its been discussed here and on numerous other forums that THIS IS NOT how to PROPERLY test your alternator.

you can test with a multimeter and/or ammeter and see if your alternator is putting out current to the battery, or you can take it to a shop and have them test it for you.


fuck, the ghetto recommendations on this forum are often beyond stupid.

[ixfxi]

" Warning: Never disconnect a battery cable while the engine is running to "test" the alternator. Doing so can cause high voltage spikes that can damage the alternator as well as other electronics. "

Starting & Charging System Troubleshooting (http://www.aa1car.com/library/2002/cm10220.htm)


sigh...........

[s14l0v3r]

wow, great advice if you're trying to introduce a voltage spike into your car's electrical system.

search, its been discussed here and on numerous other forums that THIS IS NOT how to PROPERLY test your alternator.

you can test with a multimeter and/or ammeter and see if your alternator is putting out current to the battery, or you can take it to a shop and have them test it for you.


fuck, the ghetto recommendations on this forum are often beyond stupid.


amen to this. if you wana test your alternator jus turn ur car on, use a dmm and put the leads on. your pos lead on your pos battery post and your neg lead on your neg battery post/good ground. voltage should be between 13.5V-15.5V. or you can bring it to a shop and have them do a charging system output test to make sure it puts out the right amount of voltage when a load is being put on it. probably the best way unless you have the equipment. but either way operation "turn car on and take off negative battery cable" = not good idea.

[silviaz]

Yeah I was thinking that but I've checked my ground and my big plug and also the positive/negative, and nothing seems to be loose. What are the other place I should look for that concern directly the alternator ?

The clicking/buzz noise depends on my battery light. I put my brake pedal, the light flash and I hear the buzz, I turn on my fans at high, it buzz again, I put my headlight, buzz/clicking..

I know if I have a bad ground, or a loose connection, the test will show me a bad alternator because the voltage will not be constant.

The battery is like new, freshly charged.

The wiring before I installed the new one was inspected so no bad wire. What comes to my head is maybe a bad connected wire or the alternator. The engine didn't run for a long time. Maybe it's rusted into the alternator, but WHY that buzz sound arg... this is not my dash connector, everything work perfectly and I didn't play under that part of the dash where the fuse box is located.


Sorry for my english.

[silviaz]

I also tried something.

On my accessories, (when the car is not turned on) I opened my lights, no buzz sound, so the power was coming directly from the battery and I had no sounds issues.