Is My Alternator Dieing?

[99durango5.9L 10+ year member]

this is my situation, i had a little piece of wire 4 gauge left so i upgraded my battery ground....the volt meter in the car went up a good amount over 14....but today the volts were right at 14....the truck also started hard one time today....is that something to worry about?....the read out on the cap is the same....usually drops from 14.4 to 13.6-13.8ish with beat....do you think my alternator is dieing //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

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[iDesignBoxes 10+ year member]

this is my situation, i had a little piece of wire 4 gauge left so i upgraded my battery ground....the volt meter in the car went up a good amount over 14....but today the volts were right at 14....the truck also started hard one time today....is that something to worry about?....the read out on the cap is the same....usually drops from 14.4 to 13.6-13.8ish with beat....do you think my alternator is dieing //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/confused.gif.e820e0216602db4765798ac39d28caa9.gif

Cap...?

Get rid of it.

And do the big 3.

 

[loudaccent 10+ year member]

wait a few more days, hook a digital volt meter to any power wire in your car an watch the volatge,, an you you still have hard start,, but volts are normal it probly your batt.. thoes are most common,,, or you could be haveing excessive voltage drop threw old stock cables

 

[soloXgt 10+ year member]

when you start your car, what does yout car voltmeter display? does it slowly increase to full output or jump right to it as normal??

 

[miker 5,000+ posts]

Alt.'s usually just DIE don't they?

When it happens it happens, it's not like an extended thing..

 

[99durango5.9L 10+ year member]

when you start your car, what does yout car voltmeter display? does it slowly increase to full output or jump right to it as normal??

it never jumped up really quickly....but it moves up the same as normal just doesn't go as high....

 

[danz24 10+ year member]

Alt.'s usually just DIE don't they?
When it happens it happens, it's not like an extended thing..

ya i thought so to, and its still charging so I wouldnt worry too much about it yet..

 

[99durango5.9L 10+ year member]

ya i thought so to, and its still charging so I wouldnt worry too much about it yet..

good point....

 

[dbhittin 5,000+ posts]

none of my alts slowly died, they all just died lol

 

[99durango5.9L 10+ year member]

since i don't wanna start a new thread.....im a change the question....does anyone listen to music at 37hz?....

 

[oldschool4me 10+ year member]

i have had an alt go bad but not quite dead. it would charge sometimes and sometimes not. like it would charge for 15 min fine and then all the sudden it would stop for a few min. eventually it quit all together but it went on for a couple months. i would say its probably your battery though. maybe its going bad. some cars you can take off the pos term of the bat and if the car keeps running then its the bat if it shuts down its the alt. this will not work on all cars though. i would just take the alt to get tested though.

 

[jmanpc 5,000+ posts]

An alternator usually makes 14.4 when its cold, and then goes to about 13.8 when it warms up. Your situation is completely normal.

 

[loudaccent 10+ year member]

wen an alt dies it eather over charges or under charges an then it just goes down hill from there ... yes most of the time it is fast ,, but there are some cases were its slow

( 2 days),, i wass bumping one day during lunch break,,shut the car off,, started it at the end of the day.. volts read 12.3 with it rnnning i new it was badd so i unhooked everything had an hour ride home, an about 3 min from home volts were at 8 volts an the car;s computers started shuting off due to most sensors run a 5 v ref signal.

 

[99durango5.9L 10+ year member]

An alternator usually makes 14.4 when its cold, and then goes to about 13.8 when it warms up. Your situation is completely normal.

it was a little warmer then it has been outside....cool....