Hi everyone,

I have a problem that I REALLY need help with.

So about a month ago I was driving and out of no where the car would not accelerate anymore. It was flashing the brake and battery light and I parked it. Did some research and found out that those 2 lights mean that the alternator is not charging the battery. So I changed the alternator and all was good again for exactly a week. Then it started flashing those 2 lights again (battery and brake). Only this time it would only flash while I was not moving, once I started driving they would stop flashing. If I park the the car drive it the next day, it will drive fine for about 5 miles and then start flashing again, but only when the car isn't moving (red lights, stop signs).

I took the battery in to get checked and they told me it was good, but was low on charge. So they charged it for me and that drove good for about a day, and then same problem. I also bought a multimeter now so I can see whats going on. It was giving me about 12.4 with the car off, and 13.8 with the car on and idle. But when I would turn on the A/C it would drop between 11-12.

I noticed that the car was leaking oil and I thought that it might have been leaking oil onto the new alternator and that might have ruined it. I changed the valve cover gasket, and got ANOTHER alternator and installed it. Everything was good for another week, was getting 14v on the multimeter with the car on at idle, and now yesterday it started flashing the brake and battery light again, only when I'm not moving.

WHAT IS GOING ON!?!?! PLEASE HELP!!!

Does it still drop voltage when the AC kicks in? I would start looking for a short circuit then. AC clutch is the suspect of course.

far raf wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 22, 2018 2:42 pm

Does it still drop voltage when the AC kicks in? I would start looking for a short circuit then. AC clutch is the suspect of course.

Yes it does! What would the fix be here? new A/C compressor?

Also can you explain to me how this affects how the alternator charges the battery? (I'm just a YouTube mechanic)

If you have a short circuit anywhere, voltage drops and battery does not charge.

Could still be alternator, and they should have checked your first new one when you brought it back to get another. Alts from parts places have horrible records now, the result of lifetime warranty being applied to them. They WILL give you alts forever but the quality is such now that they expect you to change several of them and what the lifetime thing really means, it in no way means the part is better, rather that it is worse. I used to sell them and fully 20% failed right out of the boxes and many more will in a week or month and even faster if the car does not have clear clean electrical on it.

I saw us once go through 5 alts with a guy before we ever got one that even worked for a minute, and very common for people to change them 2-3 times a year. The industry has fallen through the floor in quality. I for one learned to rebuild my own and first time it lasts forever. Starters often have the same issues. Why you pay $200 for them, you are buying in essence 3-4 of them at a time.