Dashboard Lights Of Death.....

[shawson]

Hello all..
I just joined the forum, thanks for having me...

I have a 99 GrandAm 4dr / 3.4L. I have had this car since new, and my only prayer is that it would get stolen or suddenly burn to the ground! However until such luck I have to try to deal with the problems at hand.
Over the past 5 years I have gone through just about every trouble light on the dashboard (I call it the Christmas tree). Over the last 60 days I have been at a loss. 2 months ago my battery light came on and within a few minutes the car started to lose power and eventually died. Discovered the alternator was gone. No worries, I replaced the alternator with a reman one and I was back on track. Since then I have replaced 2 MORE alternators and just today my 3rd one went as well. This will make 4 alternators (including the original) in 2 months that went. I have replaced the last 2 from the wreckers. I cant believe that they gave me 2 alternators that were bad. Something else must be wrong here. I have checked all fuses. This includes the drivers / passengers side panel and under the hood. All was good. I did my best to follow as much wiring as I could to see if anything was shorting, but as far as I could see all was fine! If anyone else has had similar problems and could point me in a direction, I would appreciate it.. Thanks

[richtazz]

sounds like a bad ground or a dead short. First check all your battery connections for rust and/or corrosion. Next, trace the wire from the stud ont eh back of the alternator to the battery. It may be rubbed thru somewhere.

[mavroxur]

If you purchased one of those reman. pieces of crap from autozone or another mass retailer get used to it. I went thru 7 alternators on a pontiac sunbird that i used to have, and i finally went to a local alternator shop and they put in their own brand of internals (regulator, diodes, etc..) and after that i never had to so much as touch the alternator. Drove another 30k miles and sold the car. I'll never shop autozone again for reman. parts. Got an alternator for a Ford Explorer (4.0L V6). Voltage would fluxuate between 14.1 and 12.3 at regular intervals. You could see the headlights get bright and dim every few seconds. Took it back and they tested it and gave be the b.s. "it's not the alternator". Went to the same shop that did the alternator on the sunbird, they said it was and swapped me one out they already had rebuilt. Still driving with that same alternator. Autozone = BAD :-)

[shawson]

Hmmmm.. 7 alternators.. Well I did as much as I could in checking the wires... Didn't see anything that was short or grounded.. So I purchased :another: alternator from the wreckers.. LOL. Seems to be running for now but the one thing I did notice.... I pointed my Digital Thermometer at it and she was reading 93.3 Celsius / 201 Fahrenheit... after about 5 min of running. Im thinking that might be a little excessive.. However I do hear your advise. If it goes again I will pay the bigger bucks and have one done right! THANKS