View Full Version : is it the alt or what!!!!!


DREZ1992
04-24-05, 04:11 AM
ok here the story i have a 1994 deville 4.9 4100 its been sitting in the back yard for seven years untill i decided to buy it the owner has been in jail thats why i got it so cheap.
any way i knew it need a radiator so i got that yesterday and installed it.
i started it and let it run for about 10min and it died so i tryed to restart it and the battery was dead so the next day i removed the alternator and took it to autozone and it was tested. it put out a solid 14.5 volts so i took it back and reinstalled it i got ride of the old batt becuz i was convinced i had a bad cell so i took the battery out of my 91 deville and it started right up and idles fine even when i turn on the high beamers there is no change in rpm so i figure the alts charging but to further test it i remove the - batt terminal while it idle and as soon as i took it off it died. so now i just dont no where to look. was the 94 designed not to run with out the battery or what.
please help and tell me what to check next
thanks in advance
Andre

DREZ1992
04-25-05, 11:56 AM
dam can anyone help

DREZ1992
04-25-05, 11:58 AM
i ran the obd and came back with these codes:
PO52
IO39,52
RO17,26,24 HISTORY
AND RO51 CURRENT
ANY IDEAS??

maydog
04-25-05, 01:47 PM
I think that running without a battery connected can be harmful to your alternator. I have had poor luck with the test results from parts store alternator testers, the only test that ever failed was on a good unit.

I have had alternators on other vehicles kill the battery when the car is off, but charge fine when the vehicle is running - I do not know if that is possible with this type of unit.

Did you ever get the battery you removed tested? Is the new battery going dead after shutting off the car?

If everything is fine now, I would say the battery is bad.

Otherwise, before you yank out the alt again, I would look for other sources of paracitic drain. If you have a multimeter, measure the current drain of the battery when the car is off. Disconnect the alternator cable at the battery and take another measurement of the car battery drain and then the alternator drain alone. this should tell you wether you need a new alt or other work needs to be done on thecar.

Katshot
04-25-05, 01:51 PM
Your problem was the battery but removing the cable from the battery while the engine is running is very risky for many of the electrical components in the car. Hopefully, you didn't damage anything.

DREZ1992
04-25-05, 11:50 PM
i let the car run yesterday with the new battery its not chargeing at all becuse after it used all the fire in the batt the car died and the batt was dead as well.
i dont no what to think.

oldgamer
06-02-05, 04:54 PM
As Katshot said, it's a risky to remove a battery on a running engine and it's not always reliable test.
It's posible that even good alternator has not enough juce on idle, specially if the belt not tightened enough and headlights on or other load. Try to recharge the battery, then run the car and check voltage with a computer or tester. If voltage get a bit higher as you accelerate, alternator works fine and you should check the belt.

oldgamer
06-02-05, 04:56 PM
P.S. Almost all codes you posted related or can be related to removing battery, so try to fix voltage problem at first, then clear the codes.