Alternatory help..

[cjrboy14]

So I'm guessing my alternator is not working. I pulled into my drive way and the car stalled. All day today my dash lights kept flickering on and off (all of them abs brake battery etc) my battery light kept fading in and out...

My battery was recently replaced and the car starts after sitting for a while...

Is there a write up on where and how to pull the alternator? I have to work thursday and cannot be without my car

I really appreciate the help

[tmeyer29]

wait so the car starts after sitting? If so it probably not your alternator. Check grounds and connection to battery

[cjrboy14]

it starts but dies right after like after about 20 seconds or less... its been running all day and restarting until now. When it restarts all the gauge lights stay lit. All connections seem fine. How do you test the alternator with the car running isnt it like if you disconnect the pos if the car dies then its the alt?

[cjrboy14]

one important piece of info....my was washed and detailed today...could something have gotten wet??? the wiring looks fine. It actually stays on until I turn my head lights on

edit- now with the car sitting (off) the headlight wont come on or slowly turn on but are extremely dim....battery then?
Modified by cjrboy14 at 11:22 PM 2/9/2010

[cjrboy14]

So we put a new alt and the battery still wont charge....hmmm....We will try a new batt and and alt and see what happens but idk

[Zwicked]

If someone pressure washed the engine, it could have gotten a lot of connections wet. Any of them with the spring clip are not really very weatherproof and moisture can get inside. I would pull the ones for the injectors, CAS, PTU, Coolant Temp Sensor, AAC, FICD, and TPS and leave them off for a couple of hours, and then spray them with good contact cleaner/protecter, then reinstall and see if it's better. Also make sure the battery connections are clean and tight.When it runs and the lights flicker it's an indication of intermittent connection, especially seeing as it sometimes stalls but will start again.To test the alternator, when it's running use a multimeter and touch the probes to the + and - battery terminals. It should show a little over 14 volts if it's working properly.

NEVER let anyone hose the engine down. I see this all the time at work on engines that have much better connectors than the Z where people pressure wash the engine, and then at some point things go funky. Even if it isn't apparent right away, that moisture eventually leads to corrosion and rotting of connector pins etc. The Green Devil loves moisture.