Hey all,
Well, I've been reading through posts regarding my situation and I don't know that my experience fits anywhere, so here goes:
The battery light has been flickering on/off/solid for the past two weeks on my 99' SE 2.5L. It's usually at low RPMs, but will stay on at high sometimes as well. I initially thought it was the alternator because sometimes it's not on at all, so that would rule out the megafuse. Upon searching the forum I found it might be the high resistance wire in the harness going to the alternator, but if this was the case it would still be outputting enough power to run the car, correct? I ask because on Friday the car died a few miles from home...I could tell I was running on battery alone because I couldn't pass 3K RPMs before it would buck. So from here, I had a friend come and give me a jump (as it wouldn't start when I came back) and as luck would have it, no light at all! So I take off to get the car home before it acts up again and sure enough, about 1 mile from home I see the light begin to come on/flicker. So at this point I'm think it must be the alternator if it died while running, so I pulled it yesterday (BTW, thanks Ray!!!). I took it to Advance and Autozone and both places tested it and IT PASSED!
So, now I'm wondering if the alternator is just on its way out so it's off/on and that is why it passed the tests? The car only has 57K on it, but I have been running a 240W headunit and 300W amp for the last 40K+. I have experienced dimming a few times, so I'm leaning towards it being a stress-related malfunction of the alternator.
What do you guys think? Any help would be appreciated.
Cheers,
Gavin
