2002 wrx with what seems alternator problem

[phill0124]

Hi everybody,

I changed 2 year ago my alternator with a refurbished one at the dealer and I think its broke again. Even if its a refurbish one, I tought that it would last longer than that... so i dont know if it could be another electrical problem.

Here the symptoms:
- ABS light turn on.
- Clock and other lights in the car fade, even head light.
- Radio may turn off sometimes.
- Speedometer and RPM indicators (I speek french, I would call this needles) goes down just like the car is off, but in fact, the car still running.
- Those things happen only for couples of seconds, it can turn ok about 5 to 60 seconds latter, and do it again in few seconds after it turn ok.

So here I am, hoping this is not a critical problem on my car. When i had my first alternator problem, it was those symptoms... so I believe it could be another thing this time.

Any ideas or sugestions of what it could be... is it my alternator again?

[Mikie13]

It sounds like it is the same thing.

But also make sure that your battery is in good condition as well.

[MainFrame]

Sounds like bad alternator to me too, but I would go ahead and have to battery tested to be sure.


I had the same thing happen with my Maniac Electric alternator and it turned out to just be a loose connection in the regulator. Cheap and easy fix.

[phill0124]

My battery is brain new (about a month or 2), so im gona try the connection in the regulator... where is that regulator exactly lol.

by the way, i had this problem just after subaru changed my timing belt, so it would be logical that a connection would be loose

[Drews187]

There is also a good chance you have one of the connections on the battery loose. And if the battery is completley dead it will drain and could damage the altenator as well. if you have a volt meter test the volts while the car is running, the volts when running should be 13v and up but not more than 14v. if under 13 volts its the altenator. but check batt conn sometimes its the most simplest thing.

[Drews187]

also check the conn to the back of the altenator that is where the regulator should be. there should be a single wire with nut and washer that is the power and then a harness connector going to the altenator make sure that is all the way plugged in and check for freyed wires as well.

[MainFrame]

where is that regulator exactly

"H"

[phill0124]

thanks for the reply guys!

Yesterday I had the problem back, and i took off a battery connection: the car stopped. So now i know that its the alternator. i gonne try to open it to see if i can fix the regulator (if its broken of course).

thanks MainFrame for the picture, I will try with it.

[phill0124]

Hi there,

was not the alternator regulator, going to replace it then.

thanks for all the answer,