Electrical System Problems

[GCAdidas13 10+ year member]

I'm having issues with my car. I'm gonna vent for a few... let me know if you can answer any of my questions.

Info:

Car: 1997 Toyota Camry LE V6

Battery: Kinetik HC 1400 (might be 1800 i can't remember), purchased October 2006

Alternator: Iraggi alternator, not sure which model anymore, purchased March 2006 (WITH lifetime warranty)

Big 3 in 0awg, proper grounds and distro blocks, secure connections.

I know a lot of what I've done is bad, please don't give me crap about it, just say what I should do.

In March 2006 I installed the alternator myself and did the big 3. At the time I installed it with a YellowTop as my battery. Ran fine and well for a while, probably let the battery die once or twice, then the yellow top was done, so I bought the Kinetik in October 2006.

Installed the Kinetik and starting a few month later I started seeing my lights dim when I listened loud, barely noticeable. Seemingly, it's gotten progressively worse, and in the past few months even at medium to low volume I can see the lights in my dashboard dim when my turn signal is on. Also, recently a couple times when listening loud, one of my amps would cut out completely (low voltage protection, I presume).

The Kinetic battery has been dead (at my fault) probably 5 or 6 times in the last couple years, with 3 of those being in the last couple months.

At any rate, I take the car to an auto store and have them check battery voltage. Their machine said 11.5 volts idle, 12.3 or something like that at 2krpm.

I took it home and measured with my volt meter, I got 12.4 idle and 12.6 at 2krpm.

Also, my stock alternator is lost (disappeared somehow while cleaning out the garage).

Again, I know this is bad and my fault, but what to do?

Is the alt finished?

Is the battery finished?

Thanks

P.S. (and possibly related): At some point tonight my security system started not responding to the fob, any ideas? (Viper 791XV)

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[GCAdidas13 10+ year member]

So everyone's all "TL;DR" on me?

 

[audioholic 5,000+ posts]

Your alt should definitely be putting out more voltage than that.

 

[audioatg 10+ year member]

Take all batts out charge them each up and let them sit over night. The ones that drop big time in voltage are the ones that are dead. With the Alt I would say. Go buy a cheap walmart batt put in run the vehicle with that batt in check voltage at battery with a dmm and at the back of the Alt with the dmm and see where it is. The viper thing might be due to low voltage from the battery. But dont hold that to me. Just a guess there.

 

[GCAdidas13 10+ year member]

Took the alternator to a shop, it failed one of the preliminary tests and the testing equipment wouldn't proceed to spinning the alternator up. Sending it for warranty replacement later on today.

The battery I'll charge for a while tomorrow, leave it off the charger and try the voltage in a few days.

When I get the alternator back the first thing I'll do is put in another vehicle's battery and test voltages just in case, I suppose.

Also going to the junkyard for an alternator today... lost the stock alternator somehow, not my fault, parents cleaned out garage and now we can't find it.

 

[GCAdidas13 10+ year member]

Alternator is back from Iraggi.

Battery went on a 10 amp charger this evening for about 7 or 8 hours, then I switched it to 2 amps for a little while to top it off.

I'm definitely putting the alt in tomorrow regardless of if the battery is good or bad. Tomorrow night I'll be doing about 8 hours straight of city driving (pizza delivery), with the same story Saturday night, so probably tomorrow afternoon before work I'll be able to see if the battery is holding charge or not.

(Yes I'll be checking voltages frequently and I have a backup car available if I need it)

 

[GCAdidas13 10+ year member]

FYI i only have one battery and it's a Kinetik HC1800.

Tonight I drove about 6 hours in the car on and off; i'd say 90% of the time, the car was on.

At the end of the night, the car idled at 13.0v, made it up to 13.8v at 2krpm, and rested at 12.45v when the car was turned off. (lights were on)

Tomorrow I'm probably going to get a load test on the battery, and it will probably be bad.

 

[Azzkker]

with as warm as its been 12.45v is not bad at all for the static charge, if your car does not drag at all when trying to start i would not worry about it. if you drop into the 12.2 range after the load test though time to start looking for a new battery since you are pulling quite a load on it with the car audio installed.

thanks

anthony