Flickering lights

[jolear]

I have a 2000 Venture. At night the head lights and dash board lights flicker. There doesnt seem to be any other electrical problems. Any ideas?

[JRAMOS]

Originally Posted by jolear

I have a 2000 Venture. At night the head lights and dash board lights flicker. There doesnt seem to be any other electrical problems. Any ideas?

Hi.
you might want to read my thread "intermitent light problem"
I think you are experiencing the same problem as me.

[umina]

Try this fix:

http://www.impalahq.com/TSB/TSB01-06-03-005.html

I ordered the kit yesterday ($4.08 at the local pontiac dealer) and it will arrive tomorrow. I will post back with results. It says its for 2000, and mines a '99 but if it works it sure beats a $200 alternator and even a $50 battery.

[umina]

This solved my problem in about 10 minutes!!! Best part was it was only $4.08 US. I ordered it and after two days, it came in. Did it that night in my garage. two things not mentioned in the instructions though:
1. Make sure the motor is COLD when you do this, you'll be leaning on it the whole time. On these vans, you have to do this repair blind because the screw is recessed into the plastic cover on the back of the alternator (towards the firewall). If you look at the picture in that link, and then put your hand back there, you will feel the recessed plastic hole just behind where the battery cable attaches.
2. Use a magnetic screw driver. It doesn't matter if you drop the old screw getting it out, but if you drop the new one and washer, you might as well order another part rather than try and fish it out from the back of the motor.

Also, you don't have to use a stubby screwdriver. I was able to get a normal phillips screw driver back in there with no problems at all. Good luck, if this doesn't fix the problem (make sure you use the odd shaped washer when you put this back together!!!) you will need a new alternator or battery.

[CKAnders]

I took our Venture van in for service because of the flickering light symptom.

Was anyone else told that the flickering lights were caused by a faulty alternator that was "OVERCHARGING" the battery? I was given that diagnosis by the dealer. They said that the alternator was putting out up to 16 VOLTS.

***********QUESTION *******
Does anyone know what voltage is supposed to come off the alternator?
-----------------------------------------------------
The Chevy dealer wants over $600 to install a new (rebuilt) alternator.

After they gave me the bad news, I began researching on the internet on another auto forum (before discovering this one), and I came up with the same fix from that same TSB - the alternator grounding bolt. Apparently Silverado trucks have the flickering problem as well.

Today, I bought the part at a Chevy dealership - essentially nothing more than a screw with brass washer - and just had it installed at an independent repair shop while I was having the oil changed. When I picked up the vehicle, the lights were NOT flickering.

I do not have the equipment to test the alternator voltage myself. However, the repair shop said they measured it peaking at 14.2 VOLTS. Is that normal? They thought so and discouraged me from buying and installing a new alternator. Such honesty.

Any additional info or opinions are welcome.

Meanwhile, I'll keep an eye on my lights and post back with an update.

Thanks.

[papi62596]

Originally Posted by umina

Try this fix:

http://www.impalahq.com/TSB/TSB01-06-03-005.html

I ordered the kit yesterday ($4.08 at the local pontiac dealer) and it will arrive tomorrow. I will post back with results. It says its for 2000, and mines a '99 but if it works it sure beats a $200 alternator and even a $50 battery.

Thanks for the fix. It saved me a ton of time trouble shooting the electrical system. I bought the grounding bolt kit for under $5.00 from my local Chevy dealer and got it overnight. I replaced the screw today in about 15 minutes and the problem is gone.

I spoke to the service guy at the dealership and was told that "Ventures just do that" and there was no fix for it. He did say that for $140 they could perform a electrical system check in about 2hrs to try and find out what's wrong with it. He said that I might need an alternator and wanted to replace it. I just laughed and walked away.

You have to love this site.

Thanks again- Nelson

[RNRea]

Originally Posted by CKAnders

I took our Venture van in for service because of the flickering light symptom.

***********QUESTION *******
Does anyone know what voltage is supposed to come off the alternator?
-----------------------------------------------------
[snip]
I do not have the equipment to test the alternator voltage myself. However, the repair shop said they measured it peaking at 14.2 VOLTS. Is that normal? They thought so and discouraged me from buying and installing a new alternator. Such honesty.

Any additional info or opinions are welcome.

Meanwhile, I'll keep an eye on my lights and post back with an update.

Thanks.

That is a normal, regulated voltage. A new battery will provide around 14V (6 cells times apx. 2.3V/cell) so the alternator needs to provide a higher voltage for charging the battery. The regulator's job is to control the output voltage so that the battery can stay charged without overcharging. These days it is almost always built into the alternator, so if it goes bad you usually replace the whole alternator. If there is a bad connection (either + or -) then you can see a whole host of weird issues (too many to go into detail here). I hope that they fixed this on later models (I have an '04).

[Notch]

My Venture has this problem and I followed the link above but I did not find the info. Does someone have an actual part number and a name of where you purchased this part?
Tried the dealer and Carquest auto parts but neither knew of this.
Thanks.

['97ventureowner]

Please refer to the AF user guidelines for responding to old threads. This thread is over 2 1/2 years old and the last response was over 18 months ago. In the future PLEASE start a new thread, and if necessary, link the old thread in your new one.

[bleepster]

^^ Perhaps this site needs maintenance and needs to "purge" data that is old??

[LMP]

Originally Posted by bleepster

^^ Perhaps this site needs maintenance and needs to "purge" data that is old??

Lots of cars involved in questions here are much older than the oldest threads. Old threads contain lots of experience and there is absolutely no need to reinvent the wheel. Referring to old threads within new threads is just good practice.

['97ventureowner]

Originally Posted by LMP

Lots of cars involved in questions here are much older than the oldest threads. Old threads contain lots of experience and there is absolutely no need to reinvent the wheel. Referring to old threads within new threads is just good practice.

This site is a "work in progress" and is ever evolving. Think of it as your own personal repair manual that constantly gets updated. You wouldn't want to go to your repair manual to diagnose a problem only to find the needed information was deleted because it was old,( but still relavent).

[reldred]

My 99 Venture had flickering lights too. So I called my local GM dealer and they sold me a new alternator grounding screw. GM#10316685 fastener gen which cost me $3.00. After reading the above thread it took me about 15 minutes to remove the old screw and install the new one using a standard #2 philips screw driver.