charging system help

reaper of souls · Post by **reaper of souls** » May 18th, 2005, 1:18 pm

ok guys i'm lost on what could be the problem. got my car tested two days ago (avr) was told battery is good alternator is good replace you battery terminals. ok so i did that and still nothing, so plan b why not run a fused pice of 8awg wire stright from the posivite battery post to the post on the alt you know compleatly by pas the stock charging circuit and create a directe path. Nothing tryed with both stock wire and my wire on at the same time and Nothing!!!! what in holy hell is wrong with my car i'm not getting and sudden power drains when i turn the car on it just seems to not want to have anything to do with my alt beecause the car runs off the battery charge i can drive around and watch my volt meter drop and the voltage will not go any higher than 12v it should be running at at least 13.5 - 14.5 volts. I've gone through 3 mechanics and they have no idea and all test show that the batttery is fine and the alternator is fine and the system should be working. I need help my brain is starting to hurt

and i can't think of anything else to do

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » May 18th, 2005, 1:49 pm

I have a similar problem with my car.. in my case.. Whenever I touch the brake pedal.. the headlights dim for a second and then come back up.. Other accessories also cause the dimming.. just not to the same extent as hitting the brakes. My alternator shows its putting out 14.2V But I suspect its actually the voltage regulator inside the alternator that is at fault.. I have a different alternator I will be trying out here in the next week or two.. I will post back if it makes any difference. Also.. on my car.. the light is burnt out in my rear window defroster button.. I went over 2 weeks with a battery drain before I discovered it was on.. but hey.. at least my rear window didnt fog up

Tunes67

reaper of souls · Post by **reaper of souls** » May 19th, 2005, 2:00 pm

ok so i've now ripped off the alternator and i'm bring it back after eveything we have come to think that the voltage regulator is shot and apparlently this dixie electronics company is known for parts craping out and not being propperly tested to see if they work so i'll get back to you all later tonight or tormorrow when i get a new one on and see if that fixes the problem

reaper of souls · Post by **reaper of souls** » May 19th, 2005, 8:16 pm

ok so alt is good my car is crap so i was looking around at some info and there are two different alternators made for the 94 rs build date of car post and prior to july 1 1994 determind by vin ## so i wanted to find out what the difference is between the two i'm thinking it's the plug wires i think that they might be reversed if anyone knows which wire is the force/lead wire and which is the sense wire please let me know

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » May 19th, 2005, 8:37 pm

I cant remember the color.. but I can tell you how to find out which is which.. With the ignition OFF, Using a Volt meter.. unplug the two wire plug from the alternator.. test from each wire to ground. Which ever wire shows +12V (battery Voltage) with the ignition off is your sensor wire. The other wire is for your Charge light on the dash. It will (or should) show battery voltage only when the ignition is turned ON. Hope this helps.

Tunes67

reaper of souls · Post by **reaper of souls** » May 20th, 2005, 1:38 am

thanks alot tunes i'm so glad i have guys like you to help when my brain is shot i have a wiring diagram but it doesn't say which is which. now the other wire to the dash should it be showing 12v when running if so i have found the problem

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » May 20th, 2005, 1:48 am

Well that is how it was explained to me when I took my car into a automotive electrician to help me track down my prob.. and when I tested the two wires in my car.. I got the results from my car that I just passed on to you. Sounds like you might have a problem in your wiring harness or ECU.. keep us updated though.. inquiring minds want to know

Tunes67

reaper of souls · Post by **reaper of souls** » May 22nd, 2005, 2:20 am

oh happy time are here!!!!!

Ok so took my car in to this romain guy on friday who specilizes in vechical electrical systems told him everything that was wrong and what i had attemted to do in under 4 hours i get a call back he said he found the problem and can fix it ( it was the main black wire to the alt post it was crap and acting like a giaint risistor there was power going to the battery but the wire had suck so much power about 9v worth so it wasn't charging)so anyways he fixes it and tell me it would be a good idea to get new belts put on so i ask how much he would charge me to put them on he said buy the part and i put them on for you for free so in total fro a couple hours labour for the wiring and for new belts he only charged me $182. also to top it off i got on the topic with him about car audio and that i'm certified in it and he told me he is starting to open up his show room for a little bit of car audio and performance parts and offered me a job to work the show room when he gets it up and going. so i get my baby back and running better than when i got her and i get a job out of it as well, with this kind of luck today i think i'm going to go to the casino for a bit who knows maybe i can win big and go crazy stupid with trubos body kits and what ever else my little heart desires for my baby , i'm thinking rx-8 red with a silver flake and a trible graffic for my mx

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » May 28th, 2005, 2:23 am

Hey reaper.. a quick question for you.. Did your car spent any time sitting outside without being driven for any length of time? That you know of? Just a curiosity thing here.. My car sat for almost 6 months before I bought it. Just wondering.. I will be replacing my main charge cable this weekend.. but I am wondering how they end up developing resistance.

Tunes67

ryanlindenberg · Post by **ryanlindenberg** » May 28th, 2005, 3:20 pm

did replacing the charge wire fix the dimming problem when you hit the brakes too? or just the charging problem you had?

Devilhog · Post by **Devilhog** » May 29th, 2005, 3:10 am

I heard the dimming problem was mostly caused by bad grounding.

Havent had a chance to make and install my own ground kit for the engine yet so my lights always dim with my sub pounding. Even had people flash me thinking im flashing them haha.

Ohh was also wondering, my base seems to cut out whenever I really want to pound it. Like its sucked a ton of power for the first couple of beats, then skips 2-3 beats, then starts pounding for the next couple. It repeats and I end up turning my system down till it stops missing. I know everything is installed correctly and the amp is grounded. All the wiring is 4 gauge so its not like it cant get the juice to the system. Would bad grounding the cars are known for cause this as well as the light's dimming?

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » May 29th, 2005, 3:35 am

Bad grounds can indeed cause issues.. and could even be a contributor to your issue. With my car however.. I have done all the ground mods and while they did help.. the ground mods didnt eliminate the dimming issue. See with my car.. when I hit the brake pedal.. the headlights dim for only a second and then come back full up. Its really only an annoyance for me.. but there are others that have had this issue with far worse results.. cars that die when they come to a stop when their headlights are on and they hit the brakes for example. I think Reaper may have found the answer with his replacement of the main charge cable from the alternator to the battery. Apparently his cable had developed resistance in it and was dropping voltage across the cable.. I will be replacing mine tomorrow so I will be able to see if this solves my issue as well.

Tunes67

reaper of souls · Post by **reaper of souls** » May 29th, 2005, 4:06 am

i'm not too sure how long my car was sitting on the lot for but that could have been a part of the problem.but i guess the termanal that conects to the alt had to be re soldered and have alot of corission removed. but my lights still dim when i hit the brakes so latter on i'm going to be addinga cap to my system so that sholud stop ( and i know that i'm going to get yelled at for the coment but it's worked for me before and thats prof enough for me) as for your system devil double check your grounding point just to make sure there is no paint and its metal to metal also try turning up your system then ajust the gain on the amp and see if that brings the thumo back if you have the gain to hight the speakers may get too much power and just not accept it and cut out. but as for grounding i didn't bother with a kit i ran a 8awg wire from the cyclinder head straight to the battery and it works just fine

ryanlindenberg · Post by **ryanlindenberg** » May 30th, 2005, 2:03 am

so a quick way to check to make sure if your charge cable is good is to take a multimeter to the alternator post and the + battery post right?

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » May 30th, 2005, 2:24 am

Disconnect the battery terminal from the battery before you check for resistance with a multimeter.. otherwise you will cook your multimeter. You should see little or no resistance in the cable.. I checked and bypassed mine today.. I found 1.7k ohms of resistance in the cable.. Cant really tell any difference in performance and I havent driven it yet while dark to see if it has affected my dimming issue or not.

Tunes67