Alternator Problems -- Diagnosing Electrical Problems Properly

Diagnosing alternator problems can be a bit tricky in certain situations because the electrical system in a car comes from two places, the battery and the alternator. I'll give you a little background so you can understand what both systems do. The battery has one primary function, to start the car. The battery provides a high amount of voltage needed to help turn the engine over. After that, the alternator takes over. The alternator is basically a generator that provides an even amount of low level electricity. It has a circular bundle of many copper wires and a rotating magnet to generate electricity. Once the high voltage required to start the car happens from the battery, the alternator takes over and provides the low level electricity required to power the cars many electrical functions, including lights, the radio, spark, charging the battery, and more.

If you're having alternator problems and you're driving down the road, a bad alternator will cause your car to slowly die. Your lights might begin to dim, you'll lose power, and then, the car will just die. Once an alternator goes bad, all of the electrical systems required to keep a car going will stop functioning. If you're having battery problems, then you'll generally only have trouble starting your car. The battery's main function is to start the vehicle. So if your car won't start, then you either have a bad battery, a bad starter, corroded cables, or broken connection somewhere between your battery and starter. Hopefully that will help you more accurately diagnose your problem.

There are other electrical problems that you might encounter as well. Having a faulty coil or faulty spark plugs can also cause a car to lose power and die. If you're having electrical problems and your not sure if it's the alternator having problems, the battery, or some other electrical system, there are a few ways to test. If your battery is dead, then not only will the car not start, but you shouldn't be able to turn on the headlights, or they'll come on but very dimly. If you're having electrical problems and aren't sure exactly what they are, make sure you come up to speed by glancing through my other two hubs on Solenoid Problems and Battery Problems.

If you're having spark plug or coil problems, the symptoms can vary greatly. I've been in multiple vehicles at the time of coil and spark plug malfunction. When a coil goes bad, the result is similar to when the alternator goes bad. You'll seem to lose power and then the car will just die on you. One reason for this is because when an alternator dies, the coil, which provides spark for the engine, no longer gets power from the alternator. So in both cases the coil is involved and the car loses power and dies. In this circumstance, it's difficult to tell whether the alternator is having problems or the coil. One thing that might help you is that when the coil goes bad, parts of it often melt and there's sometimes smoke or an odor associated with it. This will only really help you though if you open up the hood immediately and check. If you're reading this article hours or days after the fact, then that test won't really help you.

So before you go out and order a new battery or a new alternator, try and test some of these different systems. If your alternator, coil, battery, or starter is bad, the car probably won't start anyway, and definitely won't be drivable. So try and get as much information as possible so that when you get a ride down to the auto parts store, you can tell the workers there as much information as possible so that they can help you buy the right parts and get your car up and running again. Depending on what system is bad, you should be able to fix it yourself.

If you do decide that you need a new alternator, make sure that your current alternator is beyond repair first.  Alternator prices can vary greatly by make and model, but generally speaking, a new alternator should run around $250.  That's without the labor for installation however.  If you're going to order and install it yourself, then it shouldn't be too terribly expensive.  Just a few hundred dollars.  If you need to have it installed by the mechanic, then the price might be a bit higher.  Depending on where your alternator is located within the compartment, the installation might only take an hour.  But if the alternator is difficult to access, the installation might require the removal of other parts and the installation could take many hours.