Possible alternator?

[nyquil]

About late last month My car started randomly throwing the brake and battery light. They come on after about 15-20 min of driving and blink at the same time but in no specific order. I checked my alternator and battery, both seem to be putting out quality #'s and I even had autozone check both, they agreed with me. Latley ive noticed that sometimes the lights will flicker and the idle will even dip very low, but the car never dies. Any clues on what it could possibly be?
I was considering a ground, but im not sure where all of them are located, but the ones I could visibly see seem to be connect fine and in good shape.

[OdessaS13]

Latley ive noticed that sometimes the lights will flicker and the idle will even dip very low, but the car never dies. Any clues on what it could possibly be?
I was considering a ground, but im not sure where all of them are located, but the ones I could visibly see seem to be connect fine and in good shape.

i have exactly the same problem (s13) i still havent gotten around to checking out what it is. checked ground it seems fine too. I dont know if it makes a diffrence if its H4 conversion but iam curious to know if anyone else has this issue or any solutions. If i fgure this one out ill let you know what it is,
Mike

[240meowth]

just blow it up w/ a nuke!

i hate random problems that can't be duplicated. But to shoot out a guess, does the RPM change or dip down and car runs crappy? It could be the vaccume thing that controls the idle, ICV? It's one of those big pipes connected to the intake, make sure there's no small leaks.

Or else, there might just be a pair of wires crossed somewhere...

[projectRDM]

If the charge light is coming on, it has nothing to do with idle or vacuum. The voltage regulator could be erratic, when mine went out it would show anywhere from 4V-16V at different intervals, it checked fine because it wasn't always dropping voltage. Go ahead and replace the alternator before it leaves you stranded.

Crossed wires? Fuck would that do?

[i-love-my-s14]

Weird that this comes up right now because this happened to me the other night. I noticed on my apexi turbo timer that the voltage was dropping way below 12v, it was dipping to about 10.6v and that is when I decided to get my butt home. By the time I pulled into my apartment complex I noticed that the volts are now at about 9.8v and my lights were very dim, my car started to sputter then died. By this time I noticed that the brake light and battery light were on, so I did some thinking and decided that it was my alternator. So today I took my alternator off and am dropping it off to get rebuilt tomorrow. When I get it back on I'll let you know if that was the problem or not.

[ledzeppelin240]

With the amont of electronics in cars when the battery drops below 9.5v things usually start failing. Could be bad battery or most likely a bad alternator or diodes. If 1 goes you only have 2/3 output.

[nyquil]

Weird that this comes up right now because this happened to me the other night. I noticed on my apexi turbo timer that the voltage was dropping way below 12v, it was dipping to about 10.6v and that is when I decided to get my butt home. By the time I pulled into my apartment complex I noticed that the volts are now at about 9.8v and my lights were very dim, my car started to sputter then died. By this time I noticed that the brake light and battery light were on, so I did some thinking and decided that it was my alternator. So today I took my alternator off and am dropping it off to get rebuilt tomorrow. When I get it back on I'll let you know if that was the problem or not.

keep us/me updated. I appreciate the help guys, but the problem hasnt been fixed yet. I cant really pull my alternator to get rebuilt since its my DD and i need it to get around college and to work. Anyone know where I can order a good quality rebuild, or even a good deal on a oem unit?

On a side note, I-love-my-s14 your car is gorgeous, I also have a white zenki.

[i-love-my-s14]

Update for nyquil and anyone esle that experiences this problem. It was my alternator that was giving me the problems. Once I put on the new alternator the car started up and ran fine, and the lights turned off. Sorry it took so long to respond but it is a pain trying to get an sr alternator rebuilt around here.

[theicecreamdan]

With the amont of electronics in cars when the battery drops below 9.5v things usually start failing. Could be bad battery or most likely a bad alternator or diodes. If 1 goes you only have 2/3 output.

if only one diode goes open the alternator will have a higher output.

[Boney]

I'm having the exact same problem... my voltage keeps dropping. I just got a new alternator and its still doing it.