[katkota]

Hello folks & Happy Thanksgiving;
my 2004 Focus ZTS 2.3L engine has been acting funny.. the light inside the the car is a little flaky (dims when the car starts and not stable).. Also sometimes when i start the car, it won't crank and i have to repeat it few times until it starts.
I went to Autozone to test my battery, the guy said my alternator generate too much power and i may need a new alternator.
I read few article online and some of them says it could be the voltage regulator and also that could be causing the starter issues and some other article said it could be the battery that needs to be replaced.

I don't want to go buy alternator & starter & new battery which is a lot of money. I need some help on what could be causing the light to be flaky and do i really need a new alternator??
Is the voltage regulator inside the alternator or is it a separate device that can be replaced separately??
DO i need a new starter or not cranking is related to the battery/alternator issue?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!![wave]

 

[katkota]

Yes.. The Autozone guy said the Alternator produces too much voltage... do i need to replace the battery as well?? I hope not.

 

[katkota]

no ... no smells.. just the light sometimes goes up and down so a little flaky inside the car

 

[katkota]

The battery reads (with the car off): 12.5 v
The battery reads (with the car on): 14.4 v
The battery reads (with the car on & with AC and load on): 14.0 v

I think -but i'm not sure- the battery seems fine and the issue is with the Alternator or the voltage regulator inside of it.
Any idea??

 

[katkota]

Thanks but shouldn't the voltage reading goes down when i put a load on the car?? i thought it should go down to something like 12 or 13 v but even with the load stays up, that's why i though the voltage regulator inside the alternator could be going crazy

 

[katkota]

I will check the wire.. one thing i missed was when i put the load, the reading was 14.4 or 14.5 but when i took the load off the reading went to almost 16v

 

[katkota]

I'm going to replace the alternator first and see how it goes... since the battery measured 12.5 volt while the car was off

 

[katkota]

Do you think i should just replace the battery as well?? I went to Autozone twice to test and one said the Alternator is putting out too much voltage and the other one said the battery is bad

 

[katkota]

the windows seems to roll up & down fine