Alternator probably dying, need assurance...

[xraycat]

Hi,
Just recently my Charge Battery Light has been lit after start-up and dims when my revs go up. Just tonight my CD player would only play a couple seconds of a song then pause. It would also dim quite low then there would be crazy characters on the display.

My headlights and dash lights dim when I step on the brake as well. I am pretty sure this means my alternator is about to kick the bucket, am I right?

Also, if indeed I do need a new alternator what's the best route? Should I get a rebuild or a new one? I assume I can probably switch it out myself so I won't have to pay a mechanic. Thanks.

[Tunes67]

Yes very likely your alternator is kicking the bucket. You dont mention which MX-3 you have, either the RS or the GS versions. Neither job is a lot of fun.. First thing would be to remove the alternator and have it checked.. Most parts stores can check it for you for free. As for buying a replacement alternator.. well.. thats where things can get a bit complicated. Again partly because I dont know what your car is.

If you have a RS with no normal electrical issues, your lights didnt dim or flicker at all prior to your alternator failure. I would recommend buying a brand new alternator and just swap it out. Avoid Remanufactured Alternators.. yes they are cheaper.. but you get what you pay for. Lifetime warranties often just garauntee a lifetime of problems.. spend the extra cash up front and you are less likely to have problems in the future.

If you have a RS and have experienced your lights dimming when the brake pedal is applied.. I would recommend upgrading your alternator to the stock GS alternator. You have to swap the pully off your RS alternator and put it on the GS alternator I believe.. but it will give you an upgrade of 20-25 amps of power.. this is a common conversion and its pretty much plug n play.

If you have a GS with no normal electrical issues.. Just get a new one and swap it in.

If you have a GS with the lights dimming issue.. buy an alternator for a Millenia and swap it in.. not sure if you will have to swap pullies on this or not.. I have no experience with this one. But apparently this will again boost your amperage up to 110 which is a gain of 20 amps over stock.

If you buy any alternator from a parts store.. the one piece of advice I recommend that you heed the most would be not to buy a remanufactured alternator.. or ANY remanufactured part. You are only asking for problems in the future to save a couple of bucks today. Hope this helps.

Tunes67

[93_mx3_gs]

Before you do that, I had the same issue in my 92' camaro ( 383 swap ) so what I did was took the battery out and the alt, had them both tested at autozone, both check out ok, put everything back in..same friggin problem. It drove me nuts for a few days. I replaced almost everything electrical I could think of minus battery and alternator lol. So anyways, it kept doing it and I got sick of it, pulled the friggin alt and battery again and went to autozone , apparently everything was 'fine' so I wanted a second opinion. I went to Checker Auto and had them test the alt. They told me Autozone only does one test, a voltage test. I said eh..ok, hit me up with some info when your done. Walked around the store waiting for my answers for about 40 minutes. Alt results were perfect for both Volt and Amperage. Battery on the other hand, It can hold voltage without amperage and if it's not capable of holding amperage, it will seriously eat up like 80% of electrical power being put out by the Alt.

So all in all, it ended up being a shot battery that could hold 13.4 volts but couldn't hold any amps XD

[Nd4SpdSe]

Hi,
Just recently my Charge Battery Light has been lit after start-up and dims when my revs go up. Just tonight my CD player would only play a couple seconds of a song then pause. It would also dim quite low then there would be crazy characters on the display.

My headlights and dash lights dim when I step on the brake as well. I am pretty sure this means my alternator is about to kick the bucket, am I right?

Also, if indeed I do need a new alternator what's the best route? Should I get a rebuild or a new one? I assume I can probably switch it out myself so I won't have to pay a mechanic. Thanks.

That's what mine did. For a few weeks twice it came on under 3000rpms for a few days then went away. Fortuntely since my car's a manual, i could drive keeping the revs high and the charge light off But I know it's the alternator, I can hear it whine as i rev the engine. I'm just waiting until spring. I want to put a Millenia alternator in, but I saw not long ago that there is a recall on the alternator for Canadian residence, so i might just get that done since I have no power issues with my GS 90amp alt.