Bad alternator? My husband knew our alternator was going to **** out on us soon, and it just did the other day. We replaced the alternator when it went, but the very same day while driving, the exact same thing happened again; the display lights (including speedometer area) all suddenly turned off. We're hoping we were just given a bad alternator. Could anything else have caused this? Is it possible that we have a bad fuseable link?

If you have a voltmeter and know how to use it test the battery voltage with engine at idle and then again at 2000 rpm. You should have an increase of around 1.5 - 2.0 volts at 2000 rpm. Around 14.5 - 15.5 max.

Take the car to a local Autozone and have the Alternator tested, it is free. Also when the "Battery" light comes on it doesn't mean there is a problem with the battery persay it means the battery is not getting charged up while you drive.

Unfortunately does sound like your alternator and the pulsing is most common to overcharging if you can get a multimeter put it on to dc volts 20volt range connect to the battery and with the engine running should read 13.6 volts to max 14.2 volts get someone to bring revs up on car to around 2500 revs and charge rate should still be inside these readings if either side of these you have a charging problem ,if the drive belt is visible see if you can see it bouncing if not quick trip to repair shop for diagnosis will be able to tell in couple of minutes and shouldn't be charged for diagnosis

You have a open connection even a open fuse start with the fuse there is a 120 amp that is for the charging system and there is a 30 amp fuse.If bothe fuses are good go to the alternator and make sure of your connection just because there on doesnt mean there good The choice tool for this is a voltmeter

it can be bad alternator blow fuse bad alternator belt

ok, make sure your battery terminals are secure and tight. take a multimeter, put it into dc voltage and put the positive on positive battery terminal, and negative end on negative terminal, it should read 12 volts, anything less the battery is bad, make sure you do this when the car is off. when the car is up and running do the same procedure, now do the same thing with the multimeter, now the alternator is recharging the battery, so it should read 13.8/14 volts anything less the alternator is bad. AGAIN make sure the terminals are tight, and secure.

• This is classic of your alternator going bad. Sometimes, when it first begins to go bad it will function on and off. Soon it just stops charging the battery all together. The battery has one function and that is to start the car. Then the alternator is ran by the belt and charges the battery and in effect runs the car. The reason for the lights coming on is the power fail in the car.
• Buying a new battery worked for a short time because the fresh battery ran the car but with no alternator to charge the battery the car soon died again.
• The fix is to replace the alternator. Do it soon or even that new battery will go bad from being drained so much.

regards, Tony

It is a little soon but not unheard of. If you start your vehicle and disconnect that battery does it DIE? If it does either the Alternator or the the voltage regulator is bad. If it doesn't then most likely it is just your battery, not common in one this new but surely possible.

You could have a Serpentine belt going bad or the tension pulley has gone bad. The noise can also indicate a bad alternator bearing and your going to have to replace the alternator soon. The alternator will still keep working and producing 13 to 14.5 volts, but the bearing may be bad and will fail soon causing your alternator to total fail then. Good luck and hope it's a simple serpentine belt or tension pulley that needs to be replaced other then a alternator. If it's the Alternator that has gone bad, Auto Zone will have the replacement part and can give you the step by step instructions to getting the job done with common tools.

The alternator is bad. Your accessories like that are driven mostly on alternator power, and as soon as it goes out, everything goes haywire. You should pull the alternator off, and have it tested at your autozone, and when they tell you it's bad, then you can go ahead and get the new or remanufactured one to replace it with. The alternators on these vehicles usually go out around 60-70000 miles almost like clockwork, so if it's original, I would definitely expect it.