mentis

Yeah, I'm leaning towards the low water level making the batter act up and frying the alternator... as you said. Hopefully this will be the end of my troubles for a while. Though I should look into getting a new battery sooner rather than later.

Ha ha... for sure!

Hmmm, that's true... the sticker did say Mexico on it and it is from O'Reilly. At least I have a lifetime warranty on it. Then again, the first alt was OEM I think. Not sure if that makes a difference.

Sorry for resurrecting this old thread, but there have been new developments where I thought this issue was resolved. Initially I thought I was having an unrelated problem (so I started a new thread) but as it turned out the alternator I had replaced went bad too. The story continues in this thread... http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?p=1019447

Thanks Cougar, I followed your advice and finally have some good news! Tested that battery after getting it charged and it tested good. Got that new alternator in, and put the battery back in as well. Car started up fine and voltage holds steady around 14. So finally was able to get that car home. So relieved! Since this is the second time my alt's gone bad I am still aware that there may be an underlying cause which will make this happen again. Could the fact that the battery was low on water have caused two alts to go bad? Any other suggestions?

Okay, so here's some new developments. While I thought the battery had enough juice, based on having connected a portable jumper and getting the same result, it turns out that the jumper was actually dead (not mine, btw). So the battery was in fact rather low. On top of that, water level inside battery was also very low. So I tried jumping the car using another car, and got it to start up only to have it sputter and die moments later. Tried again, and this time checked voltages. Everything was fine obviously while connected to the other car, but voltage dropped rapidly when disconnected. Took the alternator to have it tested, and sure enough it was bad. I had just put this in a few months ago! Since battery was so low on water however, it's probably bad too. Could the battery have caused two alternators to go bad? Charging the battery with replenished water tonight and will so if it holds a charge. If not then a new battery should hopefully do the trick. It has been a very long day... OTL

Thanks, I'll give that a shot. Sadly I'm not in a place where I can push-start it, but hopefully jumping the starter will do the trick.

Unfortunately I have done all of those things. As mentioned, I have replaced the starter and I also used a portable jumper to make sure battery had enough juice. Still no go .

Hey guys, another electrical starting problem here. Did some searching and seem to be having the same problem as described in this thread. In kind of an urgent situation here... car stuck at a gas station and can't get it to start. There are fast repeating clicking sounds coming from the starter/solenoid. Just replaced the starter and it's still doing the same thing. Also checked the battery, it's fine, and cable connections which are also fine. The ground connector on the starter was pretty dirty and loose, but I think I managed to clean it up enough and tighten it to where it should work. So two questions... first, how can I start the car directly from the battery so that I can at least get it back home before it gets towed? And second, what are my options now? Saw mention of a starter relay in that other thread and if this car has one then maybe that's it? Your help would be greatly appreciated!

Hey, the forums are back up! lol... Okay, I guess I misunderstood that somewhat. Either way, I believe I'm just going to go ahead and replace that alt. Figured I'd go with a lifetime warranty one from O'Reilly and call it good. Hopefully the voltage is right though, which I know is not always the case for some reason. Is it supposed to be 13.5V or 14V?

Thanks man . I've replaced alts before, so I'm hoping that's all it is. Did another test today. Turned on the car, then disconnected the alt and and battery light came on. So does this mean that it's not the alt?

While I can't claim to understand this 100%, I do believe I get most of that. This leads me to believe that I still need to do some more testing before determining that it's the alternator. Planning on getting to that tomorrow. Thanks for the education ^_~.

Okay, cool. Of course this is assuming I can even get it there. So hey, that's a great deal on the alt. Why the huge price difference? The 93 model is $200 more!

Hmmm... I see. Will try that tomorrow as well, thank you for the advice. Would the auto-part stores run a better test on these components with their equipment?

Good point ^_~. Thanks!

Yeah, the voltage was the same on both counts until I started to turn things on. So if I do need a new alt, I noticed on Rockauto that there are several brands and some that I hadn't heard of. Any that art generally good or bad ones to watch out for?

Did not watch for the battery light, so will check that tomorrow. Also forgot to measure voltage of the fused lead, or rather I didn't know to do that. Is that the same as the fusable link in the fuse box?

Finally found my multimeter and was able to do some testing today. When I first tested the battery it was at just barely below 12 volts (around 11.92 I think). After turning on the car this did not change to above 13 as it should have. I then started turning on all the electrical components in the car one by one, and after I did I saw the voltage start dropping and it continued to drop till a little above 7 volts, which is when the car died. This pretty much seems like a bad alt, especially considering that I tested the voltage at the battery terminal and the alternator with the same results. Would you guys agree?

Ha ha... I know, right? Thank you for the tips, I will do that!

Yeah, I should take it in and have them test it, or maybe just get out my multimeter . I checked for corrosion and everything looks pretty clean and nothing's loose. Will double check the fusable links though and clean those as well.

On my way back from Christmas celebrations last night, my 93 Legacy L Wagon started to loose electrical power. I first noticed it when I realized that the instrument panel backlighting got very dim. Shortly thereafter the stereo turned off, so I pulled over to check things out. At the time, I was running the heater, stereo, lights, wipers, and back window defroster, so pretty much everything. After turning the car off, letting it sit for a moment, and then trying to restart it wouldn't turn over. I heard a repeated clicking noise so first guess was the solenoid. I let it sit for a few more minutes, and tried again. This time I noticed that the instrument panel backlight was back to full brightness, and the engine would turn over a couple of times, so something was changing. I waited and tried a couple of more times, and eventually power was back and the car started up again. Weird. Unfortunately, about five blocks away from home at 1am, the car started to loose electrical power again and this time the engine started to loose power (just as if I was running out of fuel) and finally stalled altogether. Even after waiting for maybe 30 minutes, it never got better that time. I came back this morning and got a parking ticket for Christmas , but the car started up just fine as if nothing happened. After doing some reading in this thread, I guess it could either be a relay or the IAC? Not sure though. This has never happened before, but seems to point to an electrical problem. All fuses check out okay, but I should probably check the alt, too? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Oh yeah, and happy holidays!

Hope it's okay to post this thread here... Posted this car on here a while back, but now we're moving and have to sell this unfortunately . Just thought that there might be some JDM fans here that would like to know... Anyways, it's a 1977 Dodge Colt, manufactured by Mitsubishi, with 74k miles. The engine is a 1600 with a 4spd manual trans. New carb, fuel pump, water pump, starter motor, points, plugs, wires, filters, etc. Located in Wilmington, NC. Here's the listing... http://wilmington.craigslist.org/cto/1690449315.html

It certainly is .

I sure do! ...and btw, got the new bushings installed and the shifter feels much tighter. Good stuff!

Spoke with my mechanic yesterday, and he said that it's possible the clutch might have gotten hot and then stuck to the flywheel. That would explain why it would continue stalling, and also why the problem would go away after letting the car cool down. They're going to see if the clutch needs adjusting to make sure... EDIT: So the clutch did need adjusting, which they took care of the other day. It feels a bit better, and now I just have to watch my technique to hopefully not make that happen again ^^;