Think my alternator is buggered - opinions please

[Mart]

eh up,

from the seraches i've just done, i think my alternator is up the swanny.

last night i came to drive home, and all the dash lights went off as usual. Then above 1500 rpm the battery light came on whoch disturbed me. then above 3000rpm the tcl light came on, the slippery car (meaning you're skidding) started flashing, and another yellow light came on (can't remember which one). dropped the revs below 3000rpm, and these lights went off, but left the battery light on, then stopped at a junction and revs dropped below 1500rpm and the battery light went off. sped up again and the same cycle of events occurred.

if this is the alernator, how much is a replacement gonna set me back?

cheers,

a very worried VR4 owner

[Roberto]

It does sound like an alternator fault to me, but do the simple things, check for possible blown fuses, you never know...
Have someone you trust check it out, also could be a drive belt fault, make sure its still there for one. Had one snap on me a couple of years ago.

Also search is your friend as always:
http://www.clubvr4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20235&highlight=alternator+price

[Kieran]

Dead alternator. Check the voltage across your teminals at idle, 1500 and 3000 rpm, it should be 13-14 volts depending on the state of your battery.

It's a common one on the older cars. If you look at carview.co.jp, there's a lot of Jap owners experiencing this problem with the older VR-4s.

[Subaru ETA]

yup sounds like its the alternator. would be cheaper to get it recoed then to replace it

[Mart]

now i'm confused.

after the first time, it no longer does the christmas light thing, nor does the batt light go on an off,just stays on the whole time.

I don't have a volt tester so can't try that. i've started 8 times since this began and it always starts with plenty of umpff from the starter.

I even gave the batt a full charge last night, and its made no difference to the situation whatsoever.

any ideas?

martin

[Mart]

yeah alternator seems ****ed.

had a 1.5 hour drive today, then went chippy and back just now, and its finally died when i got home.

BALLS!!!

[Kieran]

yeah alternator seems ****ed.

had a 1.5 hour drive today, then went chippy and back just now, and its finally died when i got home.

BALLS!!!

Bugger - But it need not be a zillion Megapounds to change and the article that Orionn2o did will help you no end!:scholar:

[ANTHONY]

so do these things go a lot

[Kieran]

so do these things go a lot

It seems to be increasingly common amongst the older cars. However that's the only link. At the moment we don't know:

* If it's an age-related thing
* If it's pre/post facelift specific
* If it's a warm/cold area specification thing (the alternators are different between the two).

[Subaru ETA]

all alternators, dont matter if it on a vr4 or a BMW, die after awhile with age. bushes wearing out is the most comon problem, but could be regulator or whatever.

also check there is no oil leaking into it

[serenity88]

Get all the numbers you can and go from there.
Most jap cars use fairly standard alt's that are common in manufactuer that year. Don't get sucked into thinking that you have to buy a 'vr4' altenator, It could be that same alt was used in twenty different models!

[orionn2o]

I've changed 2 alternators in 6 months!! It happens!!

As you say, all those symptoms happened to me. So its time to change it.

I purchased mine from:

http://www.exchange-starters-and-alternators.co.uk/

Now unfortunately my recon alternator packed up after 8 months, however they replaced it next day free of charge.

So its up to you whether you buy a brand new or one with just new internals (like mine) the difference in cost is a fair bit.

Mine cost 270 i think and then i got 100 off for sending back my old one. So 170 all in all.

[orionn2o]

eh up,

from the seraches i've just done, i think my alternator is up the swanny.

last night i came to drive home, and all the dash lights went off as usual. Then above 1500 rpm the battery light came on whoch disturbed me. then above 3000rpm the tcl light came on, the slippery car (meaning you're skidding) started flashing, and another yellow light came on (can't remember which one). dropped the revs below 3000rpm, and these lights went off, but left the battery light on, then stopped at a junction and revs dropped below 1500rpm and the battery light went off. sped up again and the same cycle of events occurred.

if this is the alernator, how much is a replacement gonna set me back?

cheers,

a very worried VR4 owner

thats the regulator gone. As you rev past 1500 the voltage keeps going up.. DOn't let this happen for long cos you can blow lots of things in the car ie headlight bulbs and internal systems.

[Mart]

hmmm,

just been to local garage to test voltage. when running it was 11.97v. but the techy says the battery terminals being so crusty could be causing the battery not to charge properly. so gonne give them a good clean up.

don't think it'll work

martin

[orionn2o]

I'd expect it to be about 14 -14.5 at idle.

Are the terminals warm when its running?? cos with a 2v drop across the terminals at 100A is 200w which means it'll get WARM!!

Try cleaning em up and give it a try. Of course another test to do is test at idle and then increase rpm and look for a change. Even if its crusty and there is a drop, i would expect it to swallow all the power!

[serenity88]

I would expect the alt to be producing at least 13vlt's even with a shot battery. Still sounds like the alt.

[Mart]

bugger,

just asked my neighbour, who by chance had a volt meter! when it was off it was reading 11.97, when running it was 11.46.

=alternator knackered!

[orionn2o]

good luck with that then!!

let us know how you get on