Reply With QuoteSounds like the used alternator you got may also be bad. Most Autozones can test alternators.
What year is the car your profile show you have a Subaru??
Battery light issue
Well after an oil cap mishap at the track (Yes, I didn't put the cap back on. Yes, I'm a dummy.), I washed my motor to get as much of the oil out of the engine bay as I could. I Removed the plug wires, wrapped the coil in a plastic bag and plugged the spark plug holes with some stoppers William let me borrow.
I blew the whole engine bay as dry as I could with my air hose and then wiped it down with a towel. I started right up and I went for a drive to dry it some more.
About ten mins in the battery light came on. Then a few mins later it went off. I drove it for a while and all seemed well. I drove it to work on Thursday and the battery light came on again. And stayed on.
I went by Gary's and we checked it with a meter and it looked like the alternator was not charging. So I got a used one from him and a new belt.
I put the "new" alternator on tonight and fired it up and the battery light came back on and didn't go off. I don't have a meter to check it. Is there any thing else you guys think it could be? Maybe the battery was just really low from driving with a bum alternator and it'll take a long time for it to charge the battery back up?
Don't want to drive it too far in case it's not charging and the battery runs out of charge.
Thanks.
Sounds like the used alternator you got may also be bad. Most Autozones can test alternators.
What year is the car your profile show you have a Subaru??
Thanks for pointing out the profile error. Fixed it. I have a 99 miata. I'm planning to take the one I pulled off to the Zone tomorrow. That'd be a bummer if the one I put on was bad too. Oh well, it wasn't that hard.
A quick check would be to put a volt meter on the battery (it should read 12 to 13 volts) and then perform the same check with the engine running (it should read approximatly 14 volts). If you're not getting the approx. 14 volt reading, then by all means have A Z give the alternater a test.
Bought a volt meter and it says alt is charging. The light went off finally. Gues I'd just run the bat down so far witht the bad alt that it took a long time to charge back up. Thanks for the sugestions.
Bat light is coming on intermittently now. When it does I pull over and check it and it's charging over 14v. When I check the bat with the car off it reads 11-12v. Usually when I start the car again the light will go off for a while. Anything else that can trigger the bat light? Appreciate the help.
Have you cleaned the battery terminals? It might just be a loose or dirty connection. How old is the battery? It could be that the battery is going sour, too.
Terminals look good and are nice and tight. When I check the battery with a volt meter it reads in a very strong range. Again thanks for the suggestions.
Sounds like a dead cell in the battery... Or, you need to trickle charge the battery to get it back up to a point where the alternator can charge it. The AGM batteries do not like quick charging by the alternator after they get too low.
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Thanks. I took it to O'Reilly and it tested at 80%. So maybe a new battery is in the cards.
Also, the freshly-oiled belt might have been slipping. Hope it is onlt that, but batteries aren't too bad to replace.
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I put on a new belt when I replaced the alternator. But that could have contributed to the original problem.
A good fully charged battery should read 12.2 to 12.4 volts sitting with the car turned off. Anything lower and there is an issue with it. It could be that drwaing the battery down that far was the fnal straw that sent it to its grave.
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