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'99 3.8 LX, weird ind. lights/loss of electrical


Windywoes
10-15-2007, 08:57 AM
While driving last night, "ABS" light came on followed by "Trac Off" light. Next dome lights came on. From there all lights started getting dimmer and within 2 minutes I had no headlights, signal lights, brake lights, but dome lights stayed lit and I could not turn them off with panel dimmer switch.

I made it home (driving in the dark-only 1 mile). I turned off the van and the headlights came on very dimmly. Also, dome lights stayed lit. I disconnected neg. battery terminal to turn off dome lights. I measured voltage across battery terminals and got 10.5 volts. Today I am charging the battery and it is slow to accept a charge. I checked all the fuses that I could.

I think my alternator is bad. What do you all think?

Windywoes
10-15-2007, 09:44 AM
As a follow up, I charged battery to 12.78 volts and the van started right up. I measured voltage across battery while running and measured 12.40 volts. I turned on headlights and lots of other power drawing devices and voltage dropped to 11.45. I get the same reading when I measure across alternator connector and ground.

Windywoes
10-15-2007, 02:44 PM
OK, so no one responded. That's OK. I had the alternator tested and it could only deliver 10.5 volts. I installed a new alternator and now all electrical functions seem like they are back to normal.

huskerdooo
10-15-2007, 06:40 PM
Yep. My 99 did the same thing. Bad regulator in the alt. Sorry I didn't see this sooner.

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