alternator going out???????

[ultimatesho]

on start up 90% of the time there is a high pitched sqeal and it sounds like its coming from the alternator.....now yesterday i was goin down hte road ruffly 85ish wasnt payin to much attention then all of a sudden my RPM's redlined and the car acted like it had a govenor killin all the power.....and did it a few more times on the way home and a few times my RPM's were way off such as 40 in third i was registering 4500 yet i never heard the secondaries open......drove it ealrier and all was fine.....now just took it out agin and its doing the same thing and i was watching my battery volts guage and its running between 12.1 and 13.0 and its normally reads betweenm 13.0 and 14.1......im leaning twords the alternator taking a dump on me......or could it be somthing else????

 

[ultimatesho]

ok im offically done driving it till i figure out whats wrong.......i checked it all over tried reving the engine a little and all seemed fine got about 5 miles out and lost all power........then it turned itself back on......did that a few times after i turned around fairlly quicklly to come home.......one time it literally scared the S$%& out of me was doin 45 after jsut shiftin into 4th and all of a sudden hte car started jaring very badlly and all power started flickering on and off like it had a majior power surge or somthing.......after finally getting home i went to roll up the windows and the lights (interior and extreior) dimmed badlly and the volts dropped to about 11 and the RPM guage registered 2500 yet the engine never once reved.......

 

[Devin]

You made sure that the connections to the battery were completely solid, right? If the connections to the battery are loose in any way all sorts of funky things can happen. That said, you should be getting more power to the battery than 13V. However I'm pretty sure the voltages range from 12 and up to 16 at some points when it is in various sorts of usage. You can get your alt tested at a local auto parts store like Autozone or a CSK for free and I would do that.

Also, check your wires and plugs, fuel and all that. I'd be surprised if lower voltages from the alternator caused those performance issues.

 

[Sammy~D]

look over every thing and see if the belt is loose, still good and yes take it to a auto parts store and get it looked at