Weak Alternator

[KFL]

Today after work I was leaving and had to put the frot defrost on.Anyhow I noticed that my headlights flickered when I did this as well as my gauge cluster flicker for 1second. There were rain puddles around would a wet alternator cause this symptom. It has never flickered before even with the a/c on. I got home and tested it out some more still flickered a lot, and combo of high beams and fan to high made the exhaust hicup to almost stall out.My window switch also made a whinny sound as it was low on power. I quickly managed to get a reading 12.5volts (started raining again)What can I do to check the alternator if its okay. (Besides getting up tommorow morning and seeing if it cranks over.) I got a multimeter I guess test load out. Just looking for ideas/things to check tommorow morning. :help

[navysnail]

correct me if im wrong but isnt it supposed to be 14

check all your ground connections and clean them too

[Altiman94]

get your battery checked as well

[NISTECH]

when its running turn on all your none cycling loads,highbeams,blower on high,rear defogger and take a voltage reading from the battery terminals should be above 12v. if its not you got an altenator going south.

[KFL]

when its running turn on all your none cycling loads,highbeams,blower on high,rear defogger and take a voltage reading from the battery terminals should be above 12v. if its not you got an altenator going south.

Running at idle started at 14.1 voltsHighbeams/R. Defrost/Stereo/Fan High-12.25voltsTurned off everything 13.7volts

I noticed on the alternator the red rubber boot cover was slightly torn, some water possibly cause a bad contact last night. I'll be test driving the car later today after I remove and clean the battery terminals/grounds and see what I can find to fix the torn boot..But I'm guessing the alt might be going slowly or that rain really got into something enough to cause the engine to bog at idle with everything on.

[NISTECH]

redings sound ok. maybe a loose or poor connection at the battery as you say.

[s13sr20chris]

advance and auto zone will do free batt/start/alt test. good thing to do every so often. how are your batt terminals? belts? i have seen belts slip under high elec load and not make any noise. it was on my car. when it was raining and hot i would turn on a/c and all kinds of other stuff. i new the belt was slipping when the lights would dim. i would just rev the motor, wait for the belt squeal, and let off. then it would be fine. i leave my belts loose on purpose to prolong the life of my accessory drive bearings. i dont mind the noise.