both my brake and battery light are on (on my instrument panel), what's the deal??? anybody know???

a couple days ago they both came on and everything in my car electrically died then the car stalled. i replace the battery with a temp, and when i got home i charged my battery. i put it back in the car and both lights were off, and everything seemed to work fine.

i brought the car to the auto parts store, and they checked both my battery and alternator and both were working well.

now a couple days later, both have come on again. i don't know what's going on.

 

Your Alternator is on it's way out.

 

yupp its on its way out, lucky for u ur lights came on...mine died w/o nitced until i saw the radio and stuff turn off and rushed to autozone to pick up new altinator

 

Defintley the Alternator. I just replaced mine. The Batt. and brake light were on for quite a while. I knew I needed to replace the alternator but pushed it to the limit. Then one day comming home from work.....lights got dim, car sputtered and died. Left me stuck in traffic because i kept putting it off.

 

yeah its ur alternator thats the same way mine went last week so i suggest to get one as soon as u can aight.

 

i replaced the battery and everything seems fine now. but i guess i'll look into a new one. how much is a new one from an auto parts store with the core exchange. and is there a how-to??? it looks like a pain on the 5th gen. i'm guessing it's the same as the 4th though. thanks.

 

everything seems fine because you have a new battery.. however since your altenator is dead and not charging the battery.. sooner or later the battery will be dead again.. and if you don't fix it in time.. you may have wasted your money on a new battery..

Batteries will never NEVER EVER trip a battery light..

only the altenator will.. so unless you take care of that altenator soon.. or get it checked.. you might run this new battery down so far its unsuable..

 

is there a how-to for the alternator any where????

 

not that i know of.. but its pretty straight forward..

you have to remove the pullies and belts and then you unbolt the altenator.. i know it sounds easy.. but the hardest part is takign off the pullies..

 

buy a haynes manual, alternator was 200 after core exchange at autozone with lifetime warrenty

 

here you go....
http://www.motorvate.ca/mvp.php/500

 

dang 200. maybe mine is still under warranty. it doesn't look fun at all.

 

thanks for the how-to. it actually doesn't look too bad. i thought i'd have to lift the engine or drop it a little. didn't think of taking the shroud out. thanks a lot.

 

There was a recall on the 97' alternator, you might be able to get it replaced for free if your car falls under the time frame. (pretty much all 97's I think)

 

his profile says 2001

 

01 should be under warrenty, call dealer and see what he says

 

i'm replacing my alternator as we speak (same thing happened to me, i think you replied to one of my threads), damn auto store put the wrong alternator in the box, so I have to wait for it to get in from warehouse tomorrow...

 

i hate that light, saw it for two days, didnt know what the hell it was, and then all of a sudden my car turns off right at the exit of my job

 

Yeah, your alternator is definitely bad or going bad. If you know someone with a Passport 8500, you can check your alternator output. When I discovered the voltage meter function on my 8500, I tried it and noticed it said 11 volts. Shortly after this, I had the brake and battery lights come on.
My alternator at Autozone was $120 or something after core. If you check different companies' websites, they will list the alternators and prices.
Oh yeah, the replacement was a PITA on my 4th gen, but well worth it, considering I saved about $300 over having a mechanic do it.