93 subaru loyale- 75,000miles

 

has a rough idle, not real rough just not smooth.

Last night i noticed the lights were flickering at idle...alternator?

 

recently I had the drive belts off for a w-pump/t-belt.

could they not be tight enough? what is proper belt deflection for these cars?

any other ideas?

I do get a belt squeal in the rain....:-\

I'd say alt/alt belt. I install new ones pretty taught with little deflection. Not so tight that your stressing alt bearings though. Maybe 1/2" deflection.

how low of rpms is it idling. glowing lights are an indicator of craptachi anternator problems, try to tighten the belts, but i think it may be the alternator, there pretty wimpy . rev it up and check the volt guage . make sure the volts are not spiking to . like 18 volts or more

The alternator belt should be good and snug but not over tight. You may be seeing the flicker because there some bad diodes in the alternator. Some flicker is normal at low idle. Have a load test done on the charging system and it will show you what the condition of the alternator and battery are and then you will know for sure what to do.

 

Going by the mileage, you may find that the idler pulling bearing may need to be changed out sometime in the near future.

Edited March 24, 201016 yr by Cougar

ok, thanks. I will check out alt voltage and belt deflection. Then I will get back to you guys. Thanks!