Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Charging System Light On!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, so after I replaced my Alternator my Car finally stopped Dying. But even before that I noticed that my pulley's would squeal when at highher RPM's right at up shift. I found the problem to be a bad tensioner. I had no money at the time so I just kept it that way thinking that it was a nusence and not a potential problem. When 1 1/2 years later I have the same thing happen, but this time I noticed that when it squeaked and the light came on, it did not go off. I found that only when I was almost to or idling that it would finally go out. I then decided that it was fianlly time to change the tensioner. So today I changed the tensioner thinking that would solve the problem. Well, after testing, the light still came on. I reset the computer (disconnecting the battery for 10 min) and thought might also be what it needed. Well after restarting, it still did this. After test driving, I found that the squealing had stopped, but that when that ligt is on, my dash and headlights would dim, indicating that the alternator had stopped charging. I am stumped with this problem paticularlly beacuse I had a charging system test dome and the Alternator AND battery came back good. If anyone has any ideas on what could be the problem, I would very much appreciate a responce back. Thank you and have a good day.

I actually have that same problem with the squealing when you upshift quickly. I had no idea it was the pullies slipping on the belt. It disappeared when you replaced the belt tensioner? Because I just replaced my alternator and it seemed like my tensioner was working properly (extremely hard to move and definately springs back tightly). Sorry about your problem though. Only thing I can suggest is check your mega fuse between the alternator and the battery. Mine went on my and it was fairly easy to replace. If you haven't done to yet, remove the coil pack and unplug all of the spark plug wires, and look for a small black box with a wire coming out of either end. The cover pops off, but its facing down behind the engine so you need to pry it up to see if the fuse is still in tact.

I had also replaced that when I changed out my alternator. The only thing that I suspect is that I waited too long before changing my tensioner and it started to mess with the alternator. Maybe thats why the alternator went in the first place?