Alternator???

[dfnder]

Starting up the van today the battery, a/t temp and water in filter lights came on. A slow flicker... As the revs went up the learning lights dim and go out. I will check out the voltage Saturday I guess.

[J-man]

\\Mine has started to do the same. It seems that the lights don't flash when its warmed up. I have a brand new battery as well. How did you resolve your problem?

[nxski]

I would guess a new alternator, that's how I solved the problem when this hapenned to me...

[naterade]

x3 on the alternator, exactly what was happening in my van before the alternator gave up.

I would recommend finding an auto-electric shop that can rebuild your existing alternator, that's what I did, and it was a lot cheaper and quicker to have done than sourcing a new one.

Most auto-electric shops and battery shops offer free battery/electrical system testing, maybe you want to get it tested first to be sure that's the problem.

Also, a poorly working alternator is a sure-fire way to ruin a new battery...

[yojimbo]

Do all the normal checks, voltage on and off, belt tightness, battery condition and age etc, then after checking all those, change the alternator

[TardisDeli]

Deal with this ASAP, as a bad alternator will kill a new battery in mere hours or days.

First tighten your battery cables, they do work loose with time. Butch of CVI says at least 25 percent of the electrical problems that come to him are from loose battery cables.

If it is your alternator, Mitsubishi has a wonderful signal to you, so watch your dashboard warning lights in the dark with your headlights on while driving, if they ALL glow on off, slowly dimming every few seconds, on then off, on then off, very spooky, that is your alternator talking to you. .. helloo helloo could use some attention here dude. And since it is highly unlikely that you could have ALL those lights come on (ie some of the lights you might see are for oil temp, water in oil, overheated transmission, battery, door ajar, etc etc etc) and still be driving normally, just listen to those voices in your head.

To ensure you get home without running our of battery for the headlights, turn off heaters / fans / AC / radio etc. You can charge up the battery overnight, so you can start again the next day to drive to the alternator rewinding shop. Removing the alternator involves weird hand contortions, done from underneath in front of right tire, use a metric socket set for the main bolt is very difficult to reach and there is no way to see the top of the alternator to know which bolts to undo... then dont let the heavy alternator drop on your face... best just leave it to the experts because you still have to reinstall this heavy awkward lump after. You can take your old alternator to any little old alternator shop for rewinding, find an old guy to do it as they are more used to working on 1990's vehicles.

Christine.

[yojimbo]

The alty swap is slow, but not hard, if you know what you have to do.

[dfnder]

It was my Alternator, I had CVI do the work and it was painless, price was decent as well.

[mararmeisto]

I noticed you first posted this back in May, but the responses didn't start until September - did you fix it back in May and report just now, or did you wait all summer and then change it?

Either way, this is the one issue that has been beaten like a rented mule, repeatedly, on this forum so it's good to see people can fault-find this issue on their own now.

[dfnder]

Yeah there are enough people bitching at those posting common queries to do searches - it seems to be happening less...

The main factor in seeing people successfully finding answers is that the Google search actually works!

Whereas the old search tool was more successful at raising heart attack risk in members than actually helping members find answers.

[yojimbo]

Well he didnt get any answers actually, hehe, the thread was necromancied by someone with the same issue.