i think my alternator took a crap.

Well I just finished replacing all of my struts and took it out to see how it handled and rode, and After a couple of miles I noticed that the little battery light on the dash was on.

So I took it home and tested the voltage. It is at 11 volts when running
and when not running so this tells me it is not charging.

I have a haynes manual for the car and it says to test a couple of things like the wiring harness and some disconnects.

But my problem is that I cannot even find the alternator. I know where it is but I cannot actually see it from under or over the car. As you can probably tell it is a 3.4.

Does anyone know how to check the wiring harness and other stuff. It looks like either the engine has to come out or half of the car taken apart just to find it.

p.s. does any one else want to go hunt down the engineers for this engine (maybe even the whole car) and force them to actually change one of these things.

thank you, Brandon

[GnatGoSplat]

That sounds like a classic symptom of a bad alt. :(
You have to pull the passenger side wheel to get to the alt!
I'm sure there's a trick to making it easier to replace, but since I haven't had to replace one (yet) I haven't looked into it much.

[chronic139]

im doing the second one on my car tomorrow. The one I put in was low quality and cant keep up with the car. If its never been replaced before then you probably still have the back bracket bolted down. If it has been replaced, you might be lucky because most people who do them (including myself) dont put the back bracket back on. its not needed anyway. The only way to check the harness is to get in there. Pullthe wheel, pop the lower ball joint out, pull the driveshaft, and remove the shield that is over the driveshaft. good luck. Oh, by the way, if your an amateur and youve never done it before, you might want to leave yourself about 4-5 hours. Good luck.

[gtr252]

If you want my advice on the alternator, DON'T BUY ONE FROM ADVANCED AUTO PARTS!!!!! The first time mine went out, I ran down to Advanced thinking I could do it myself, found out that I couldn't, and took it down to where I now work. 4 hours later, I've got a working alternator. 1 month later, I don't. Took it back to Advanced, they traded me no charge, put it in, this one only lasted 3 weeks. Took it back down there, they said they'd pay for the labor and alternator on this one, but of course they put in an Advanced alternator. After 6 days, it also went out, which is when I made them pay for an AC Delco :D and its been working ever since. The only reason I still do business with Advanced Auto Parts is because they were very cooperative with me during my alternator escapade, and ended up paying for every installation. That's they way to make a customer a little happier after you've pissed them off so bad.