rbaksi

iTrader: (3)

Need help with an issue. I was driving down the road normally when a bunch of lights on my dash (TCS/SLIP/Battery/Check Engine) all go on at once, my radar detector is showing "high voltage" and the car loses power and will barely rev past idle. I pull over nearly immediately at a gas station and shut the car off and restarted it to find it running normally for ~20 seconds and then the issue recurred and I shut it down. Next I go out and look under the hood and smoke is pouring out of the alternator and there is clearly a small fire inside. I run into the gas station, get a fire extinguisher and put it out and disconnect the battery.

So I had new alternator, new interstate battery, and belt changed (their prices were reasonable). Afterwards the mechanic thought I might have a ground issue somewhere as it was charging at 14.6-14.7 volts at the alternator which is too high. We cleaned all the grounds on the motor and alternator and looked for any other ones. I completely disconnected my angel eyes. I even added a grounding kit. The voltage still reads 14.6-14.7 and the car runs and drives fine. My voltage reading from the radar detector prior to all this happening was 13.9-14.0. Car has 189K.

Should I be worried about this overcharging? Mechanic said take it to an electrical specialist. Was this event caused by the voltage regulator going bad?

chrome91

iTrader: (1)

ive seen many vehicles charge at 14.6V, as far as i know its normal. if you hit 15 volts or higher i would maybe be worried

when alternators go out, they can have a burning smell and smoke can occur. i would say your voltage regular went out and fried your old alternator