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Need Help A.s.a.p.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Old Mar 27, 2008 | 02:45 PM
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Exclamation Need Help A.s.a.p.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey guys...

I'll try and make this short...

Just got finished washing the car. I was extremely careful when washing it. Using no pressure, brush for cleaning, and just rinsing... also used an air line to blow away the water afterwards...

I just started up the car, and the volt meter in my odometer is fluxuating between 13-16 volts... the car is making a pulsating electrical noise and I can see my radio light pulsating along with it... the voltage is higher than normal but not quite hitting the red on my guage...

Also, in case this is relevant... The new engine was just put in about 4 days ago...

LQ4
224 cam
AFR 205's

we've been having some issues getting the car to hold Idle for a while now, and it's fine when warmed up, but on cold starts it wants to die... don't know if the two are linked or not...

i'm running to autozone in it right now in hopes of things going to normal maybe after everything has dried up, but when i get back i'm hoping to see some ideas!?!?!

Thanks guys!!!!

Forgot to mention.....security light also came on??????

Thanks again!!!

Last edited by Soul TKR; Mar 27, 2008 at 02:52 PM.
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Old Mar 27, 2008 | 02:59 PM
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as far as the pulsating of the lights thats a dead sign of a bad altinator. lights are pulsating because the car is using more power than the altinator is putting out, in some cases you could have a bad ground in the electrical system as well but usually its the altinator. as far as the car not wanting to idle when its cold that could be multible things
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Old Mar 27, 2008 | 04:06 PM
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Originally Posted by thebart455
as far as the pulsating of the lights thats a dead sign of a bad altinator. lights are pulsating because the car is using more power than the altinator is putting out, in some cases you could have a bad ground in the electrical system as well but usually its the altinator.
even if the voltage shows HIGHER than normal? I could see Lower... but higher?
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Old Mar 27, 2008 | 04:14 PM
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subscribing, this is a good one and i would like to learn

the tune could be off with cold start...take some fuel out and do your RAF table for colder weather
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Old Mar 28, 2008 | 10:11 AM
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I'd vote for bad ground, or loose battery cable. Put a multimeter on your Alt before you jump to buy a new one
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Old Mar 29, 2008 | 10:04 AM
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Check alt out put at the R terminal before buying a new one. Just use a volt meter with pos. on the big red wire on the alt and gound wire to the frame and should see 12-14volts.
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Old Mar 29, 2008 | 02:24 PM
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Originally Posted by Soul TKR
even if the voltage shows HIGHER than normal? I could see Lower... but higher?
a bad alt can actually over charge, altinators are made to adjust how much they charge, if your runnin lets say on a hot night with your ac on and headlights then the car pulls more juice rather than in the day time when your not pulling as much juice so the alt will adj its self so that it can keep the batt. charged. i had a bad alt on my truck and it over and under charged before it when out. but it may not be that it could be a ground, check the alt ground, if the connections are dirty it may not have a good connection. it would probley be best to start with the batt connections and see if there dirty, and if you want to check the alt go to auto zone they do it for free
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Old Mar 29, 2008 | 03:30 PM
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Regarless of weather or not it's a ground problem, I would still clean your under hood grounds because they are known to cause all sorts of strange problems. Can't hurt anything to clean them anyway.
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Old Mar 29, 2008 | 04:07 PM
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when i disabled my maf to tune the ltfts, my car did the same ****. my voltage would jump, my lights would flicker, and the car idled like ****. when i got everything tuned out right it went back to normal on the voltage.
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Old Mar 29, 2008 | 04:22 PM
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Originally Posted by sroach20
when i disabled my maf to tune the ltfts, my car did the same ****. my voltage would jump, my lights would flicker, and the car idled like ****. when i got everything tuned out right it went back to normal on the voltage.
if the engine is idling rough then i would check the ground to the engine first most of the time its on the firewall somewhere
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Old Mar 29, 2008 | 04:25 PM
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after i tuned the car it idled perfect and now it runs great.
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Old Mar 29, 2008 | 04:29 PM
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Originally Posted by sroach20
after i tuned the car it idled perfect and now it runs great.
well every time i have had that problem its required to clean the grounds so it would get connection im just sayin for him yea a tune may fix it but it would be cheaper to check the grounds first
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Old Mar 29, 2008 | 04:39 PM
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When I parked my car on the grass and the sprinklers went off my alternator was reading High(red).Then a couple of minutes later it took a dump.I bet it's the alternator I went thru 3 of them on my LS1.My car was doing the same thing your is doing.You can also check the battery connections
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