Battery alternator issue lights flickering help

K

kingin

New member
Issue began after alignment at local NTB, dash battery light was coming on and off here and there.

Did some searching and most say alternator going bad, went to advance picked up a reman alternator, installed it and drove around the block during the day everything looked good.

Went out at night with head lights on and dash battery light was coming on and off again with head lights dimming. Swapped used battery from another 4runner I have, now head lights/dash lights flicker when gas is applied but no dash battery light????? Any thoughts I'm lost lol


1996 4runner sr5 manual 286k replaced all drive belts last month.
 
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have a friend help you out and pencil or pen handy ....

using a voltmeter / fluke, what is the DC Voltage (positive battery terminal to car chassis / negative)

@ 700 RPM ?

@ 1500 RPM ?

@ 3000 RPM ?


:usa2:
 
Thanks BrianSD, I couldn't find my voltmeter so I swapped the newly purchased reman alternator and reinstalled oringinal alternator back in problem fixed. Oringinal battery was bad and the newly purchased reman alternator was defective. Lol reminds me of the days of the true blue starters from pep boys
 
kingin said:
Thanks BrianSD, I couldn't find my voltmeter so I swapped the newly purchased reman alternator and reinstalled oringinal alternator back in problem fixed. Oringinal battery was bad and the newly purchased reman alternator was defective. Lol reminds me of the days of the true blue starters from pep boys
Click to expand...

glad you got it.

ive ran into that problem before.
I bought a starter, it was bad. took it back, swapped it out.
it was also bad. WTF. all the rest of the starting system checked out, or was new.
took it back the last time, and asked the guy to test the new starter before I left the store.
"im not going to test it, its good"
"test it." if I put this on my truck a 3rd time, and its not bad, im pulling it down here and YOU CAN SWAP IT"

again with the, "I wont test it, its new. its good"

I finally convinced him I would cause him more trouble than it was worth, and got him to test it. IT WAS BAD. you should have seen the look on his face.

now, I wont leave the store without having them tested first.
 
I would highly recommend you replace the single cable that runs (-) battery terminal to car chassis with a 4 Gauge cable. Its simple and easy to do and it will help your battery charging system out a lot.
 
Well battery light came back on today steady not blinking on and off, after 4 days of no light. It seems as the p0171 cel is linked to this battery light. When battery light came on the first time p0171 (system lean bank 1) popped on, I cleaned the Maf sensor and it hasn't been on since till today. I will post up voltmeter readings once I get a spare persons leg to hold certain rpms to test.
 
You can also do it by yourself by measuring idle and non idle. Just move the throttle wire.
 
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I tested the the terminals with a volt meter with car off battery is at 12.50.
When car is running when battery light isn't on voltmeter shows 13.86, when battery light pops on voltmeter reads 12.35 at idle, at above idle voltmeter reads 12.36. It looks as faulty alternator??? Will replacing the brushes fix this? Toyota part# 27370-35060 or?? Thanks
 
I think he's going to need more than just a negative cable. 13.8V is pretty low when read directly off the alternator and at 3000 RPM.

Btw. You can buy a used < 100k miles Toyota alternator for about $60.

I have an extra one because I thought mine was going bad when in fact it was just the battery and the negative cable.

If you want to buy a pre-cut high quality battery cable go to West Marine.
 
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I have these 2 boxes on the positive side battery cables what are they? I will replace battery cables so do I need to completely replace alternator or can brushes be replaced for a fix?
 

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I'm not telling you to replace the positive cable, at least now without proof of something wrong.

But I do recommend replacing the negative to chassis cable with 4G. It is easy, its only about 14" long and its right there. Replacing it will take 10 mins. Replacing the positive cables would be a lot more work and probably not necessary.

Can you take another picture but stand back 3 feet? Also take a picture of that sticker on the alternator.
 
This is what I meant by replacing the battery negative to chassis wire.

Details are in my thread or you can Search for the "The Big 3 Upgrade" ; I'm not recommending you do the entire Big3 (yet) but at least start with the ground wire.


Pictured


Before - the factory ground is the wire that is barely visible, behind my stereo wire but it is there you can see how small it is.

&

After - real 4G wire
 

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I opened the black boxes and they are just extenders to connect a new battery terminal wire. I have a 4g wire on order I will replace the ground side.

Battery light went off all day until I made a left turn over a bumpy road then battery light came back on. Then it went back off 3 blocks later hahaha I checked and cleaned all connections from battery to alternator all wires seem to be in good order.
 
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