Whats up everyone. My car is driving me crazy. Whats happening is when i am at a stop light, or at idle anywhere in drive, my volts drop down waayyyy to low, sometimes almost to a point where the car cuts off. When i am moving, whether im on or off the gas, my volt meter stays right around 13-13.5. but when i start to brake and come to a stop in gear my volts drop down to about 10.5 or about the 1/4 mark on the volt meter. It gets worse with the more things i have turned on. For intance the radio, headlights, and,heat/ac. its really annoying me since my headlights will constantly flicker at night, and sometimes at a red light having to stick in neutral and rest my foot on the gas to keep from dying out. I have already tried replacing the alternator twice, and bought a new battery. The car NEVER has any trouble starting up. Im thinking that maybe the battery is not holding a charge when driving. Just wanted to know what you guys think before i go out and buy a $120 Optima red top battery. thanks for any help!!

 

anyone have any ideas?

 

If you have underdrive pulleys this is what will happen, for two sounds like you havea battery drain problem take off your alternator and go have it checked at autozone or a place like it.

 

i have the same problem too when i get to the stop light it gauge will drop but will slowly drop and everything dims and goes to just above the yellow warning on the gauge then will slowly come back up. And whenever i shift from park or drive or neutral the volts take a quick dive then recover. but when cold they are consistant at 3/4 mark on the gauge just when it warms up it stays around 13.5 just above half.

 

maybe you have a bad wire coming from the alt to the batt.Do a voltage drop across the wire and see what you get.Anything more than .2 Volts and you need a new wire.