Help!! Intermitten Alternator Failure On '96 S10 DESPERATE
July 24th, 2013, 11:37 PM
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Help!! Intermitten Alternator Failure On '96 S10 DESPERATE
Alright so I would by no means call myself a mechanic but I have a decent understanding of the basics and I am completely lost here. I have a 1996 Chevy S10 Pickup with the 4 cylinder engine. I have beat this thing to the ground putting nearly 300,000 miles on it and over time have changed about everything on it and don't want to let it die now.
Anyway a few days ago I started my car and instantly noticed the battery light was on and then saw that it was only registering about 11 volts. In the process of circling to head back home randomly the light turned off and voltage went back up to 14 volts. Over the last few days the problem has gotten worse. It will always start with the battery light on and for a after driving for a bit it would jump back up to 14 volts and the light would go off. Then after driving it for about 45 minutes one day the battery light came back on and voltage dropped to 11 volts again and it kept fluctuating. Higher rpms (3,000) would trigger the light to go off but the voltage would stay at 11 volts, only going back to 14 volts at completely random times, sometimes while idling at a light and sometimes while driving 60 mph. I have never seen an alternator work intermittently and decided I must be having belt slippage. I have now changed both the belt and the belt tensioner but the problem actually got worse and now it finally got to the point where it ran until it completely killed the battery. Has anyone ever had an alternator fail intermittently????
To add another twist, when I last started it after charging the battery from dying I revved the engine up to 3,000 rpm to see if it still turned the light off, it did, but when I let off the gas the rpms staid all the way at 3,000. The throttle body appears to not be stuck open. I turned it off and turned it back on again and the engine slowly revved itself back up to 3,000 rpm and the sat there. It seems odd that both problems could happen at the same time and not be related. I am at a complete loss here and nobody I have talked to seems to have ever experienced a similar problem.
Please toss out even crazy suggestions. I have been going over everything in my head but nothing makes sense.
Anyway a few days ago I started my car and instantly noticed the battery light was on and then saw that it was only registering about 11 volts. In the process of circling to head back home randomly the light turned off and voltage went back up to 14 volts. Over the last few days the problem has gotten worse. It will always start with the battery light on and for a after driving for a bit it would jump back up to 14 volts and the light would go off. Then after driving it for about 45 minutes one day the battery light came back on and voltage dropped to 11 volts again and it kept fluctuating. Higher rpms (3,000) would trigger the light to go off but the voltage would stay at 11 volts, only going back to 14 volts at completely random times, sometimes while idling at a light and sometimes while driving 60 mph. I have never seen an alternator work intermittently and decided I must be having belt slippage. I have now changed both the belt and the belt tensioner but the problem actually got worse and now it finally got to the point where it ran until it completely killed the battery. Has anyone ever had an alternator fail intermittently????
To add another twist, when I last started it after charging the battery from dying I revved the engine up to 3,000 rpm to see if it still turned the light off, it did, but when I let off the gas the rpms staid all the way at 3,000. The throttle body appears to not be stuck open. I turned it off and turned it back on again and the engine slowly revved itself back up to 3,000 rpm and the sat there. It seems odd that both problems could happen at the same time and not be related. I am at a complete loss here and nobody I have talked to seems to have ever experienced a similar problem.
Please toss out even crazy suggestions. I have been going over everything in my head but nothing makes sense.
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