Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting batt light +++

my 96 se v6 just had a new alt put in about 2 months ago cars had about 400km put on it since .

batt light stays on , yet the car idles fine starts fine every time . but when i give it even a little the car stutters and stumbles .

as well as my head lights flicker a bit ..

my battery holds a charge i put a trickle charger on it and it chraged rite up and the batt light was still on .

yet when i hook up a volt meter to the batt the voltage goes down when i start the car ..

any ideas ?
thanks

Don't forget to check the inline maxi-fuse between the battery and the alternator. It is back against the firewall. On the V6 you need to pull the coil pack for access.

A fully changed batter (with surface charge removed) should read close to 12.5 volts with the engine off. With the engine running you should see something over 14 volts, ideally with a fully chaged battery and the engine reved up to about 2000 rpm with no electrical accessories on you should see 14.2 volts.

You may have a defective new alternator.