so i was drivin home and looked to see how fast i was going, as i did, my battery light came on. i turned down the stereo and my car was running normal and there was no un-usual sounds. got home shut the car off and turned it back on and it was still on....kinda wondering why it came on...any ideas?
my first guess would be your alternator is checking out.
well we dont have an autozone around here....we have o'reiley's and arnolds motor supply. but an update, so i was drivin home from work tonight, bout half mile away, and on they way everything, interior lights, headlights, everything started to get dimmer and dimmer and even more dim and random gauge lights came on like ABS and check gauges and starting flickering. about a block away i had no lights at all, no headlights i couldn't see my gauges or nothing, finally got home shut the car off. go to start it back up and all it did was click and wouldn't turn over. so when i wake up im probably gonna go to arnolds or o'reily's so how much a new alternator is and maybe check with a salvage yard. would i be able to install this myself or would i need an actual mechanic to do it?
Okay few things.
NEVER have Autozone test an alternator, they full field the thing. So if it was good, they jsut shorten the life.
Secondly this sounds like your alternator is going on. Lots of auto shops run a charging/start/diag for $20 or so. to find out for sure what is wrong. i would say about 8 out of 10 times, the battery light means bad alternator.
The reason your ABS light came on, is because the modules need 12V to run on, well as the alternaor gets weaker and weaker it doesnt supply the same amount of voltage to the battery, and that in turn cant run all the modules.
It isnt a hard job on most vehicles, you need a decent set of sockets, a good 3/8 ratchet, and most likely an extention or two.
I would seriously get the whole system tested, to make the battery is good to. Sometimes if you drive to long with the battery light on, it ends up killing the battery to.
- 2004 Cavalier - 124k, owned since new
Rob, i have to disagree with you, sorry, but i work for Autozone, and if the person doing the test does it right it doesnot hurt the alternator, infact the equipment we use is comparable to what any shop uses, i have yet had a person bring back an alternator because it went out after we tested it, infact i have had several people come back after testing to thank me because i saved them over 100.00 bucks on something they didn't need to replace. i don't mean any disrespect Rob, but just being imformative.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edited Monday, June 11, 2007 7:27 AM
sirmeza wrote:Rob, i have to disagree with you, sorry, but i work for Autozone, and if the person doing the test does it right it doesnot hurt the alternator, infact the equipment we use is comparable to what any shop uses, i have yet had a person bring back an alternator because it went out after we tested it, infact i have had several people come back after testing to thank me because i saved them over 100.00 bucks on something they didn't need to replace. i don't mean any disrespect Rob, but just being imformative.
I dont have a problem with Autozone testing alterntaors, it is the full fielding i do.
I work as a mechanic for a living, and we use machines to test the battery, alternator,starter, and the machine doesnt full field the alterntaor.
I'm not saying doing it once will kill it, I'm just saying it isnt good for it. They make voltage regualtor in there for a reason, and to bypass it than test the alternator is not good.
- 2004 Cavalier - 124k, owned since new
well i went to take the alt out and could only take out the top bolt, i couldn't figure out how to take the serpentine belt off cuz when i went to loosen the nut the whole thing(belt and other pulleys) just rotated backwords. i have the haynes maunual but it only had diagrams/pictures for the 2.2. it told me how to take the lower bolts out but it was so vague without pictures i didn't know where the heck the bolts were at....if anyone has pics of the bolts that i need to take out please post them
What year is this one. I have done tons of them.
For the belt tensioner relase, think its 15mm, you need to rotate so the tensioenr releases tension and gives you slack in the belt, think you rotate clockwise.
I do believe there are three bolts, a big one, a short one, and one under the black metal thing on the right side of the alternator, you need an extention for that one.
hope that helps
- 2004 Cavalier - 124k, owned since new
well if someone could post a picture of the tensioner. i think its right below the alternator but not sure so plz post pic
2.4L rotates counter-clockwise to free the belt off the tensioner. A regular open-end wrench will just barely clear the A/C and overflow tank lines, then push it up against the upper engine mount and the belt should fall off. The tensioner is in the middle of all of the pulleys. If you are standing over the passenger fender looking directly down on the alt pulley, the compressor is directly below and the tensioner is just to the left. Once you get the belt off, there are three bolts holding the alt onto the engine. There are also two electrical connections that need to be disconnected. Once free, you just have to wiggle it around until you can get it free past the intake manifold. That hardest part of it all is getting the belt back on. I bought a new belt but couldn't get it on, so I just threw my original back on.
And what in the heck is full fielding? Are you saying the are just shorting out the coils? I had O'Reilly's test the charging system and they brought out a big box that connected into the battery and had huge resistors on it. Once I pulled my alternator, I took it to Autozone and they put it on a machine to connect up to computer of some sort.
Autozone around here charges $120 for a lifetime warranty rebuilt alternator. O'Reilly is a bit more I think.
Just an add to the above post, make d*mn sure you disconnect the negative cable from the battery before you remove any wiring from the alternator, it could save your life and keep damaging power surges from frying something expensive.
