Battery light and wierd noise under hood (video inside)

[92ShoOff]

Hey everyone, about two weeks ago after doing a coolant system flush in my '96 I noticed a weird noise as the car was running. I can best describe it as the sound resulting from installing a cold-air intake. When I had my old '92 with the stock air box everything was nice and quiet, but when I installed a Pro-M intake and MAF you could hear the air from the intake pretty audibly. I'm still running the stock air box and filter on my '96, but it sounds like I had just put on cold-air intake system.

I can't really tell exactly where in the engine bay the sound is coming from. It sounds to me like air/vacuum but I dunno. But today after installing a new coolant level sensor in my overflow container, in attempt to rid my "Low Coolant" light (which is STILL on after the new sensor, by the way. grr...), I hosed down that whole area of the engine for a few seconds with the garden hose to wash away some coolant that I had spilled. Well I go to take the car for a ride and now have a battery light.

I had the current battery out of the car a few weeks ago for a few mins to start another car of mine up, and the battery didn't look to be too old. However I have no maintenance records from the previous owner to tell for sure. But I'm now wondering if that noise I had been hearing lately was the alternator going out. The car has about 165k miles on it currently, but not sure how audible it will be to you guys here watching the video, though again I can best describe the sound as a cold-air intake, so listen for that particular noise if you can:



Any ideas?????? Also, I put my voltmeter on the battery just a little bit ago and at idle with the headlights on I'm getting 11.5x volts. I'll have to see if that drops tomorrow.
Thanks,
Andrew

 

[NebraskaSHO]

Sounds like your alternator is going out. How hard is it to remove the serpentine belt and start the car and check to see if that noise is still there.

A flashing battery light under acceleration is a classic symptom of a dying alternator.

 

[92ShoOff]

Hey thanks for the response! I'll check tomorrow to see about taking the serpentine belt off. My battery light has been on at all times ever since it came on today. At idle and at any RPM while driving the light stays lit solid

 

[SHOZ123]

Alternator is probably trash. Get a new one not a rebuilt one.

 

[NebraskaSHO]

Make sure your not driving it as it will probably leave you stranded with a dead battery.

Rebuilt alternators are typically of poor quality, see if a local can rebuild it or as Paul said, buy new.

 

[92ShoOff]

Wow. I wish I had read your guys' post about the rebuilt alternators in time yesterday lol.

So yeah, after ordering a rebuilt Duralast alternator yesterday morning I started tearing things down on the passenger's side suspension and noticed that my alternator lead wire somehow ended up against the alternator pulley. "Well there's your problem, right there."

The alternator wire was down to like two strands from rubbing against the alternator pulley. So I went back to Autozone, picked up some new 4 gauge wire, a new serpentine belt, and the alternator that I had ordered earlier in the morning. I decided to still replace the alternator because I'm unsure of the maintenance history, so last night I got everything buttoned back up, started the car up, didn't hear the noise (in the video) anymore, but my battery light was still on. I thought, "Hmmm... has this battery been ran down too many times???"

I accidentally left the car door open for 10 mins while I went inside to clean up so I could run back to AutoZone for a battery, and got back to the car with extremely dim interior lights and a no-start situation. AutoZone would be closed in another 20 mins so I left the car to charge overnight.

I got a new battery at AutoZone this morning before work, hooked it up, and still a battery light. So after getting home from work today I check the voltage at the fuse-box where the new alternator wire that I made attaches to the terminal, and no voltage from the alternator. After all of that work. FAIL.

So after I wait for my car to cool down a little tonight I'm going to try to read voltage directly off the alternator (to eliminate whether or not it is the cable that's bad somehow). My guess though is a bad alternator. A bad, newly-rebuilt alternator. Blah.

I've always trusted Duralast products over the past 5+ years of good experience. I put a Duralast alternator in my '92 a few years ago and it was great. Damn, I had no idea that rebuilt alternators are usually junk. Well, looks like I'll be searching for a brand new alternator in town tomorrow morning, hopefully someone has one. I don't have time to have someone rebuilt my current one. What a way to spend the weekend.........

 

[92ShoOff]

I just read a post on V8SHO.com talking about the connector on the alternator being the culprit for someone elses no-charge situation. I examined my connector and it looks to be in pretty good shaped, and the wires don't seem to be loose inside of the connector.

However, I tried testing voltage to both wires on the alternator connector with key on, engine off, as well as key on, engine on and didn't seem to get any voltage in either situation, on either wire. Now I do suppose that the darker-colored wire on the connector is a ground, not a positive wire of any sort, but I tried it just for kicks. So any suggestions or ideas??? Thanks again!

 

[SHOZ123]

The two wires on the alternator plug should be hot, the Orange/Light Blue one all the time and comes from the engine fuse box. The Light Green/Red should be hot in start and run and goes to the dash.

 

[92ShoOff]

Hey Paul thanks for the additional info! Any idea exactly where to trace these wires back to? I know you said that orange/light blue goes to the fise box, but I'm not looking at the car right now.... is it coming in one a particular area of the fuse box? And where exactly would I find the light green/red at?

If either of these two small wires were not making a good connection (or no connection at all) somewhere would they cause no output from the single post on the alternator... even with the engine running?

Any further suggestions on how to determine the exact problem? I find it very unlikely that I have a dud of an alternator that I just picked up... but I also know that nothing is impossible. So just trying to figure out the problem so that I can make it to my new job on Monday. Thanks!!!!!

 

[92ShoOff]

I also forgot to mention that while driving the car yesterday I noticed that I was no longer getting cold air out of the air conditioner.... it's now blowing warm. It doesn't sound like the A/C clutch is engaging when setting the car to MAX A/C, but I'll take a look here in just a little bit this morning to see if it in fact is kicking on or not.

Not sure if this helps determine what the problem may be, or if this now sounds like a whole separate problem itself. I'm going to try to test all of the fuses and see what I get but I just hope this is a darn simple fix :/

 

[SHOZ123]

AC may be the clutch shim issue. If the compressor is not engaged at idle bump it with a broom stick. If it then does engage the coil is getting weak and by removing the shim behind it you can extend the life of it.

 

[SHOZ123]

Hey Paul thanks for the additional info! Any idea exactly where to trace these wires back to? I know you said that orange/light blue goes to the fise box, but I'm not looking at the car right now.... is it coming in one a particular area of the fuse box? And where exactly would I find the light green/red at?

If either of these two small wires were not making a good connection (or no connection at all) somewhere would they cause no output from the single post on the alternator... even with the engine running?

Any further suggestions on how to determine the exact problem? I find it very unlikely that I have a dud of an alternator that I just picked up... but I also know that nothing is impossible. So just trying to figure out the problem so that I can make it to my new job on Monday. Thanks!!!!!

The Orange/LT Blue wire is the alternator field feed. The alternator will not work without it. It is a 30 A fused circuit in the fuse box.

The other wire is just for the light on the dash.

Both go into a wire loom so actually tracing it would be difficult.

 

[92ShoOff]

Hey thanks again Paul! I had started dismantling the mega-fuse box a couple hours ago to determine why the post for the alternator wires wasn't getting 12 volts. Well I found a 175 amp mega fuse that attaches between the posts for the alternator and starter cables. I tested continuity on the mega fuse and found that it was blown.

So I guess when my alternator pulley chewed through the thick alternator wire is when the mega fuse got blown. I ran over to AutoZone, grabbed the last two of those fuses that they had in stock, put everything back together and all is fine now! 13.9-14.3 volts at the battery while the vehicle is running

A/C is back working again too now! Thanks for all of your help guys!