infinkc

I'm guessing the alternator is shot, but anything else to check before I bite the bullet?

Any diy for a replacement?

Thanks!

Jferrante

Your car should quickly throw a bunch of lights (ABS,PSM, battery etc) if your alternator is bad and when I say quickly I mean less than 5 mins of driving. If you want to replace it for piece of mind it is pretty easy just remove the y pipe and your drive belt and then unbolt the alternator.

infinkc

Odd, no lights. I just noticed it today on my way home that the gauge was reading just over 12v. I drove home 30 miles and the gauge never moved. Got home and measured with my voltmeter to make sure and it was 12.6.

Jferrante

Probably not bad but I bought one of these from amazon and works fine for me

manimal

Are you new to the car? Or did the same car previously read higher?

infinkc

Have had the car. Just never paid attention to the voltage gauge.

mffarrell

Mine would fluctuate between 11.2V and 12.5V, then sometimes normal 13.5V +. I had no codes or warning lights. I replace the alternator with a new Bosch. All is good now.

You probably have a bad voltage regulator which is inside the alternator.

infinkc

Looks like you can just replace the voltage regulator that has new brushes on it for $40. Will give that a shot.

s65e90

Is this with the AC on and other accessories?

Why not just leave it alone? It's not broken.

infinkc

Why do you say its not broken? Shouldnt the car be outputting close to 14v? I never had a car output the same/close as what the battery voltage is.

Doesn't seem normal to me.

s65e90

Cause it's 12v system. Turn all accessories off and I see around low 13ish. With everything on incl. AC you can see high 12s.

I say it's not broken cause it's not right? Does the car still drive around? If yes, then why worry?

s65e90

Also are you reading the dash gauge? Put a real gauge on it and read it.

infinkc

i took a volt meter to it, and it read 12.6 when the car was on, same when off.

s65e90

What was on re: accessories, AC. etc?

cwilt

This thread has a lot of good info if you have time to read through it all.

https://rennlist.com/forums/996-turb...xperience.html

I replaced my generator as PM.