i think my altenator just gave its first death gasp

After driving 7 miles on the parkway, i was sitting in a line of traffic at a light. i noticed my ac was a little warmer then usual. i looked at my temp gauge it was at 3/4. My temp gauge is always a hair below middle. i shut off the ac thinking that maybe at 187000 miles my radiator may be clogged. The gauge came down a little bit, then took 3 seconds to go to overheat. the car was running fine. As soon as i accelerated the temp gauge immediatly went to normal. The empe gauge was acting like a voltage gauge. The ac was fine, and the car has been fine since. i drove the car with everything on for 8 miles in mixed traffic and i cant reproduce it.

With my mediical limitations i have to plan repairs in advanced (who can i sucker into it). i was thinking that maybe i should just go ahead and replace the Alt.

Thoughts?

 

nipper

WAAAAAAAAAAAAA no one loves me

 

i think i just figured out the probelm myself. Dug out the official load tester. The charging system tested ok, but the battery is iffy.

 

 

nipper

Wish I could give you a hand Nipper but I'm too far away.

i think my altenator just gave its first death gasp

After driving 7 miles on the parkway, i was sitting in a line of traffic at a light. i noticed my ac was a little warmer then usual. i looked at my temp gauge it was at 3/4. My temp gauge is always a hair below middle. i shut off the ac thinking that maybe at 187000 miles my radiator may be clogged. The gauge came down a little bit, then took 3 seconds to go to overheat. the car was running fine. As soon as i accelerated the temp gauge immediatly went to normal. The empe gauge was acting like a voltage gauge. The ac was fine, and the car has been fine since. i drove the car with everything on for 8 miles in mixed traffic and i cant reproduce it.

With my mediical limitations i have to plan repairs in advanced (who can i sucker into it). i was thinking that maybe i should just go ahead and replace the Alt.

Thoughts?

 

nipper

 

Good thing it is just the battery. Last time that happened to me it was a head gasket.

 

Lane

Good thing it is just the battery. Last time that happened to me it was a head gasket.

 

Lane

 

it was just way too fats on the cooldown to be a HG, though that was in the back of my mind. as soon as i reved the engine the temp came down to normal, and in a sort of jerking motion. The overflow tank, though yucky (previous owner never had it cleaned) wasnt full. The radiator was clean.

i'm keeping an eye on it just in case.

Wow sorry to hear about that dude. One time when my alternator was starting to go bad, sometimes it would charge, and sometimes it wouldn't, alt light came on/off periodically, and eventually it just quit charging all together, then the fuel pump didn't have any juice after a couple hours of driving and she stalled out.

 

Another time I was stuck in traffic for a long time in the winter with the heater on high, rear defroster on, windshield wipers on, headlights on, and foot on the brake, and after about 45 minutes, the radio started to turn on and off, and I noticed the voltmeter was only at about 9 volts, so I turned everything off and it charged back up. If the alt ain't putting out more power than you're drawing, eventually even the biggest, newest battery will discharge.

 

Maybe if your voltage was low enough your fans weren't turning on or weren't turning as fast and so the temp just kept climing, and that'd also explain a warmer AC output, but when driving there may be enough air flow to keep 'er cool.