Signs of a bad alternator

[91RegalGS]

Recently I had some stalling issues, but those have now been resolved, and also at the same time one day I left the door open which drained the battery competly and I couldn't charge it up, the car also had trouble running with a dead battery. Now that I have a new battery I'd like to make sure the alternator is working properly (I know I can get it tested free). The car drives fine now, but I notice all kinds of small things that I'm thinking might be related to a bad or weak alternator. When I depress the brake, the dash lights will dim slightly for a second, and when I use the turn signal the Volts guage jumps between 13-14 Volts just like a binker. I'm thinking that with the car running the alternator should compansate for any small voltage drops and keep the voltage steady. I also hear like a pump or something pressurizing ever minute or so, not sure if thats realated to anything.

[BNaylor]

Whenever you get the dimming lights it will most likely be the alternator. The Delcotron C130s and its clones are good alternators overall but they do fail sooner or later. Your sounds like it has a flaky voltage regulator.

[91RegalGS]

One other thing I forgot to metion, I get feedback in the radio when I accelerate, kind of a higher frequency.

[BNaylor]

Originally Posted by 91RegalGS

One other thing I forgot to metion, I get feedback in the radio when I accelerate, kind of a higher frequency.

I would go with replacing the alternator. Good luck.

[flatsixcrazy]

Speaking of alternators, I'll tell you what happened to me last Sunday. So my car (95, 3.8L) has been having problems with intermittenly stalling, at speed and at stop. I thought I should change out the fuel filter to see if that was the cause of the problem. After the filter changed, I took the car out for a test and it still had the stalling issue. I was able to make it back to my house and turn off the engine. I then restart the engine and rrrrrrt, rrrrrt, nothing. Looks like the battery went out. So I hooked the car battery up with my other vehicle, cranked the ignition, and then POP... crack..crack..crack. A puff of smoke came out of my alternator. so I turned off the car immediately and went out to check the alternator. It turned out that the rear alternator bearing blew out, with pieces of bearing bbs flying around at the back of the alternator. Alright then, I went to Advance Autoparts and picked up a reman. alternator and put it on. half an hour later, with the new alternator in, I restarted the car. The car started right away. Three seconds later, CLAP...CLANG..CLANG...CLANG. Now what!!!!!!?. I shut off the car and went to chack what is wrong again. Guess what?, the water pump pulley fell off with the water pump pulley mount. Un-freakin'-believable. So I went back to AA again and bought a new water pump and reinstall. I car has been running for 20 miles since the water pump change with no stalling and no coolant leaks. I hope the stalling issue was caused by the bad alternator.