Hello all,

I posted in this group a couple weeks ago talking about an issue I was having with my car stalling, shutting off and that it showed low voltage, since then I got a new alternator. OEM when I picked up the car the battery light was on, the mechanic said it needed a charge and to drive it around a ways and the light should shut off, I’ve drove it plenty far for the last week and the light is still on, so I brought it to him. He scanned it and it’s putting too much voltage. I like they said 15.5. So now he’s doing some research to see what could be going on, and it might possibly need another alternator. Can anyone help point me into the direction on fixing this issue, or tell me what is going on? I am a single working mother, I don’t have all this money laying around to buy new $900 alternators and I’m stuck with this car until it’s paid down and then I can trade it in? It has to last me for at least two more years. My car is so pretty and I love it, but this issue is so hard to figure out.

 

I take it you are not taking it to a dealer, but another shop. From my experience it is very odd that your mechanic gave you your car back with your battery / charging light on. This shows me that he is not very conscientious. Give him a day or two to check this out. If he is worth his salt, he should have this figured out, you should not have to pay another dime. If this guy can't figure it out, even though I am wary of dealers working on my car, I would bite the bullet and take it into a dealer. They will diagnose it correctly and fix your charging system. This will probably save you money in the long run. It is my bet that if the rest of the car is in reasonably good shape you should get many many more years of good use out of it. I don't think you need to trade it in, even if another little niggling problem shows up. It is so much smarter to fix up all the little things in a car, rather than trading them in. Please keep us posted as to what the problem was and how it was resolved.

 

Well said advice.

 

Thank you, I will keep you posted. They are gonna try to figure it out today.

 

You also might consider a new battery if you still have the original battery installed or if the battery is over 4 years old. At minimum have it load tested. These cars do all sorts of weird things if the battery or alternator show any sort of degradation.

 

My car is doing the exact same thing, We replaced the alternator and the voltage is now reading high and the light is still on, did you ever figure out what was wrong with your car? Just wondering which way to go now?

 

Hello I thought I replied, but did not hit the send button. My car did the exact same thing after the alternator was replaced. My mechanic was a local mechanic and not from the dealership. He was concerned of the high voltage, so he made me take it back for a whole day, him and another mechanic looked at thoroughly and found that some electrical wire had to be replaced as well. After they fixed that the light went off, the voltage was right where it was suppose to be, my battery hasn’t died, and my car has not lost power since March.

 

Ted, Thanks for the report. Can you find out what wire was replaced?

 

Did we ever find out what wire was replaced?