[Chippy49]

Alright folks, heres the deal. My battery light has been coming on and off the past couple of days and my gauge lights have been flickering as well as the led for the mileage. Sometimes, when its sitting at idle the lights will be fine, other times they get very dim. When I'm going down the road they flicker and the battery light comes on and goes off. When it starts up, the lights are dim until I rev it up to about 3K then they are fine. I read the code with my predator and it brought up that p1246. I've done a bunch of searching on here but it seems to be that it could be a multitude of things. The wires for the harness to the alternator aren't frayed or split, so my thinking is the alternator is going bad. Just want to make sure it couldn't be anything else.

 

[ajgerdes]

ok, first check the grounds, all 3 of them. Then take a volt meter and measure the voltage of the battery with the car off. Then start the car and measure the voltage again, it should be around 14-16 volts.

 

[BMARTIN03ZX3]

16 volts is too high. the altenator would be over charging then around 13.5 to 14.5 is good. Seems like your alternator is bad but check to make sure that you have good voltage at idle. If you have 12v at idle then the alternator is charging as much as it should.

 

[Chippy49]

At initial start its at 11.3 volts, when the engine is reved to around 3K it jumps up to 13.2-13.3 and stays there until the engine is under load, then it must drop (lights start dimming and flickering, as well as relays clicking under the dash sometimes)....I haven't logged the voltage yet with the predator. The grounds all seem fine.

 

[malim]

That's lowww. Mine is 14.x volts at idle.

 

[Grumpy]

Can we assume that you've cleaned the battery posts and clamps and that the clamps are tight? 11.3 volts?......when did you see that? Before starting the engine the battery voltage should be about 12.5 volts, once started it should read about 13.5 to 14.7 volts with a good alternator, depending on the RPM of course.

 

[Chippy49]

battery posts are fine......11.3 volts was right after startup, like I said once the engine is revved to around 3K it kicks up to 13.3 volts right away and stays there until the engine is put under load, then must drop because the gauge lights start flickering and battery light comes on and goes off. Hope Mike at hillbish is in today, i don't think its going to last much longer.