Not Charging/battery light on

[Andy Cabrera]

I wanted to drop this question here even though I think I know the answer. I was driving home today and as I made a turn my lights dimmed the battery indicator came on & my scan gauge showed 11 volts from 13.9.



My knee jerk reaction is Alternator died. The only reason I am bringing it up here is I replaced the alternator with an Advance Auto unit in February of 2015 (I only put about 1000 miles on it)



Would there be any other reason that this would come on? (terminals are clean) Is it feasible that this alternator died in a year??

 

[Dean Hedin]

How old is the battery?

 

[Todd Z]

Alt probably went But if you did not charge the battery fully when you replaced the alt the first time you cooked the alt..... ITs not a battery charger. its a maintainer.



Todd Z

 

[Ken Hibbs]

A local mechanic told me years ago, electrical items from Advanced, Auto Zone etc frequently don't last. He always told me NAPA, OEM or there is also a local shop that repairs them. I'm not knocking Advance, Auto Zone, just relaying what he told me.

 

[Richard L]

First check the battery! It's the fastest and easiest component to check and Autozone or Advanced Auto will check it for you at not cost.



If your battery is good, then it probably is the alternator, and that can be tested with a multi-meter. It may only be the internal voltage regulator but again, Autozone or Advanced auto will test it for free.



If you bought the Alternator from Advanced Auto, it should have a Mileage warranty, so dig through your receipts and they should give you a new one in exchange.



...Rich

 

[Anthony Jones]

You'll definitely need to either charge the battery overnight...or go on a 12 hr drive. lol

 

[EddieS'04]

Despite the voltage reading on yor scangauge. If the batt light is on, the altenator fried a diode.

Plus the alt voltage should not read 11vdc, unless bad.

I have seen new altenators fail in 30 days. Some rebuilders only clean up and replace the failed parts.

 

[Vic Sorlie]

Andy, you never did say anything about your battery. How old is it? When working with electrical system issues, always start with the battery as it's the heart of the system.

 

[Andy Cabrera]

Sorry I didn't respond sooner. I was expecting to see some notifications to my email that replies were made. In any case The battery was less that a year old & was fully charged. The problem was the replaced alternator failed. The good news is Advanced did honor the warranty (3 days before the warranty was to end) and gave me a replacement rebuilt with a full year warranty. If this one fails in a year & will replace it with a NAPA unit.