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Hey quick question my car is running fine and starts up fine, but once I'm driving my charge light would flash on when i stopped at lights ect, and now it stays off except for when I'm driving giving her gas, and the light goes off when I stop. I thought if it was my altenator it would be weak starting and the light wouldn't come on when I'm on the gas charging the system would it?

Right now your car is running off of your battery. Eventually your battery will die and you'll end up stuck somewhere. Get your alternator tested & replaced ASAP. You should also check your alternator belt and make sure its still tight as well. This belt also spins your water pump too.. so its even more important that it be at the proper tension.

Tunes67

Preciously, I have had thesame problem.

You Alternator has died and you should replace it

Not that great a deal

Okay well I went down to the alternator shop and they tested at my battery while it was running and said it's charging just fine...but when I am on the gas hard and accelerating that light still comes on, and my vents blow harder, windows go up and down faster, ect. I looked down at the alt and it looks partially covered in oil..i knew I had an oil leak form somewhere but geeze where up there would it be? It's a 1.8 if that changes anything.

It seems like the alternator tho.. but well it got tested already.. get yoyurself an optima battery plus a millenia alternator. You will never go back to stock alt


also that would happen when my alternator would get wet.
Once the terminal was losse.

Okay I think it's something else...It seems like it's overcharging, the light only comes on when I'm over 2500 RPM and when it does come on all my electronics work faster and stuff. Is there a relay or something I should be checking instead? Or a resistor or something? Could oil on the connector plug into the alternator cause it do you think?

Have you checked how much voltage you have across your battery when the charge light comes on? Or when the light is off for that matter. You should check voltages while the car is off, the engine is running but no charge light, and while the charge light is on. That might give a bit more information to go on.

Tunes67

I took it to the alternator shop and he hooked the multi meter thing up to it, and said it was charging perfectly fine at idle, and still fine when I reved it up to 3000 and the light was on.

Then I would have to go with its the oil that has gotten into the alternator.. its probably causing the charge light circuit to close and activate the light on the dash. Wipe the alternator down and get it as dry as possible. Dunno what you can do about the oil inside the alternator.. without taking it apart really..

Tunes67

So there's 2 connector's..1 into the Alt and one right beside it to a bolt with a cap over it, is this the master ground? I'm gunna blow these off with the compressor and see if it helps.

The cable with the bolt & cap is your main positive charge cable.. it runs to the positive of the battery. The plug with 2 wires contain a "Signal" wire and a "Lamp" wire. If the Lamp wire gets shorted to ground.. it will light the charge light on the dash. It also shows up at start up as the car does a "Self Check" to make sure all systems are operational. The ground connection of the alternator is where its bolted to the engine.

Tunes67

Hmmm K well I took them all apart and cleaned as best I could, but I'm still getting the charge light coming on any time over 2500 rpm! Im very frusterated and don't want to spend 300 on a new one if I dont really need it!

I did the millenia alternator swap.. its fairly simple and you can get the alternators much cheaper than $300.. here is a link to a online store at E-bay that sells them.


Click Here

I also did a write up on how to wire them in cause they are slightly different than the stock alternator. You will need to source a different plug for them.. but you should be able to get that at any decent auto electric parts store. You'll find my write up in the V6 FAQ forum.

Tunes67

I recomend the AMillenia 110amp alternator. i never had any problems with my old on but I got it for chgeap so why not. I did the swap and put soem kickass 4gauge grounds around the engine bay, its working great.