I have a voltage problem in my 00 zx3. It's very irregular. It jumps up to close to 16 volts then it falls to 13.5 volts or so. When it falls I lose power. I have a Optima gel Bat, new alt. screamin deamon coil, livewire wires, double Plat Motorcraft Plugs. My car also seems to either miss or something every once in a while a WOT, I think that has to do with my voltage, The problem also makes my engine light turn on. Then I have to cycle it through for it to go of then a few days go by then it comes back on again. any sugestions
Last edited on Sun Jul 25th, 2004 01:47 am by myprecious38
____________________ To be the Man! You must first beat the Man.
yes, i know you said it's new, but most "new" ones are actually rebuilt. have run into the problem like you state of voltage fluctuating intermittenly. the alt ended up having bad voltage regulators in them.
I will give it a try. Thank you! All I have to do is run the car and touch the positive on the back of the Alt. with a volt meter and ground the black and watch and see if the voltage jumps around. I never did it before. I know how to test to see if the Alts working or not but I never tested the regulator.
____________________ To be the Man! You must first beat the Man.
is that your focus in the pic goinlocal. If it is you might want to try the grill light mod. If you pull back the black crap around you plug for your amber lights in your grill between your headlights and cut the center wire about 2 inches up you will turn them of and they will only blink when you use your flashers or four ways. It would look good on your car when you turn you fogs on.
____________________ To be the Man! You must first beat the Man.
best way to test is to remove it and have a parts store bench test it where a load can be put on it. one of them i had problems with would be just fine until the headlights were turned on, then it would show. seems once a load was placed on it the voltage regulator would overheat.
either that or just take it back and tell them it's bad and get a replacement.
oh, it is my car, but i'm not gonna do the mod. cops around here will pull you over for anything if they feel like it (already got me for object dangling from mirror, how stupid is that, it was a damn air freshener!). JUst don't feel like dealing with it.
it could be a ground problem, my electrical system had some serious spikes in it whenever the engine fan kicked on, installed a ground wire kit and reduced the problem to almost nothing.
on ehting i fergot to mention was that when the voltage drops it seems to affect my air fuel ratio. I have a auto meter air fuel ratio gauge in my car and when the voltage drops and when i lose HP the gauge does not come all the way over to the rich side and seems to fall more toward the lean side.
____________________ To be the Man! You must first beat the Man.
well I put a New not reman. alt in my car in most of the problems are gone. The battery light comes on when i first start the car and goe out after about 2 minutes of driving. I think that might have to do with my UDP. does somebody make a small pulley for your Alt so that your Alt will run at stock speed instead of slower when you have a UDP and if they do were can I buy one from?
____________________ To be the Man! You must first beat the Man.
Oh by the way. The loss of power I was talking about was when my alts regulator was undercharging my system mr ECU wasn't getting enough electricity to stay running right so all my ECU functions went crazy!
____________________ To be the Man! You must first beat the Man.
personally, i'd put the stock back on and get rid of the udp you have. in everyday use where you're sitting in traffic and such (stop and go) the udp is killing you're alt. when idling it's not putting out enough and the system begins drawing off the batt. when you take off again the alt tries taking over and putting a charge back into the battery and running the rest of the systems (kinda like needing to be at a fast walk but instead you sit for awhile then have to sprint to get to where you need to be, wears you out, same with an alt). eventually it will either fry the voltage regulator or the windings. may not be right away but will happen.
if you prefer to keep underdriven, get a set (crank & alt). this will keep the alt at the right rpm at an idle. haven't seen just the alt pulley.
I have the same problem... but not to the extent that my Engine light comes on..
I have a volt gauge and I watch that puppy bounce all over the place.. Sometimes it dips low enough to where my lights are REALLY dim... Its very aggreviating and its been going on for some time now... I haven't had any problems that are linked to it all... but would like for it to go away...
Hmm,, I might just look in to getting a grounding system.. How would all that work?
I don't think its a ground problem. The problem is in these piece of crap alts. I'm on my forth one and its still gives me problems. What mods have you done to your engine, do you have a chip in you ECU, how about a UDP. I think it has to do with the black clip that plugs into the ALT. if you move the wires a little the RPMs move around. I don't know alot about electronics but thats my guess. I'm going to try to tighten the clips inside the plug to get a tighter fit and see if that will help. I'll let you know
____________________ To be the Man! You must first beat the Man.
