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?

 

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