Possible Alternator Problem

[Wilson1730]

I drive a 1994 Discovery and over the past week my tachometer began to bounce and I noticed a slight inconsistency in the vehicles idle. Then last night on my drive home, I had my lights on, windshield wipers on and the stereo. While rounding the corner to my house I lost all power in the motor, the lights dimmed and windshield wipers slowed down. I was able to turn everything off and drive the last distance to my house with little power. This morning the vehicle wouldn't start, I jumped it and was able to drive without any issue to my mechanics shop. He is saying its most likely the alternator and will have to be replaced. Does this sound consistent with other peoples experience with their alternator going out? I have never had this problem before. I thought I had a short somewhere that I would need to locate and replace that was pulling the power from the battery. Thanks for the help.

 

[proper4wd]

Pretty easy to do a charging test. Does sound like a bad alternator though.

 

[LR Max]

Get your voltmeter and find out what kind of voltage you have across your battery. If it is 13+, it isn't the alternator. Less, then it is.

 

[proper4wd]

Not entirely true, the alternator might be failing under load. Check the battery voltage with the engine off, then with it idling with NO electrical loads, then idling with as many loads as possible (high beams, heated rear window, heated windshield if applicable, heated seats, etc). The voltage should not drop significantly between idling no load and with load.

 

[Colin Hughes]

I had a situation earlier this winter where it seemed like the battery was toast, it went to the point it couldn't be recharged. After putting a new battery in and having issues again, we sent the alternator out to be rebuilt. It was intermittently charging and slowly destroying the battery. Since the rebuild, it's been fine.

 

[rockwood]

Replace the alternator. No doubt about it.