Hello everyone, My first time over here. I have had my 2000 subaru legacy GT for almost a year now and there has been a huge problem that i cant find an answer for. everytime i think ive found it i find something else. ill get right down to it and hopefully someone on here could give me a hand. i would really appreciate it. in the car i have the battery light and the handbrake light on. my DRLs never worked and neither did my fog lights. now tonight i was outside playing with it once again and realized that everything works fine once i unplug the 3pin connector from the alternator. so the car is running off the battery. drls come on, fog lights work, and bat/ebrake light turns off. and STAYS OFF. once i replug the alternator back on the drls shut off and everything is back the way it was. ive tested the alternator and its charging at a constant 14.10V and the battery always stays at 12.30V and remember the car has been this way since i got it almost a year ago. if the alternator was really dead or overcharging i wouldnt have made it all through the winter dailying it lol. im really stumped with what it could be .. ive tested every thing all the way down to the ebrake switch and fog light switch (before i discovered the alternator plug). If anyone knows whats up id really appreciate the info. i dont have the money to dump into an alternator at the moment so i really hope that there is a way to fix this issue as it would suck to throw away a working alternator.

The Charge light is also tied into the Ebrake/lowfluid "brake" light which activates the DRLs

 

You alternator has a bad diode.  That's why your Charge light is on.  Hasn't stopped making voltage but it's on it's way out.  Trust me, if it's lighting the Charge light while running it's shot.  Because all the red warning lights are tied into hte same power circuit, when the charge light is on, it's backfeeding to the Brake light and that is turning off the DRLs, just like it would if you apply the ebrake.

many parts stores can test alternators/charging circuits.

 

consider a used Subaru alternator from a junkyard - many rebuilts have a poor reputation. Or, locate a local rebuilder and have yours rebuilt.

+1 on the junkyard. I've had good luck with junkyard alternators. Plus, in my experience they don't usually fail (OEM ones at least) so your chances with a junkyard are good

thank you everyone for the responses i really appreciate it. hopefully it will last till i have some spare time to change it and if the problem persists after i change the alternator i will report back. just something i thought i would mention i sprayed the engine bay with a pressure washer yesterday( yes i know not a great idea but i was careful and let it fully dry before re plugging the battery) after that the lights and everything were working fine. after some time the problem came back. then i started playing with the alternator and i noticed that the 3pin plug if i would wiggle it and push it around while plugged in the lights would come back on and off. do you still think its a bad diode? or maybe something else going on with that info?