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Drives: two 96 Kia Sephias, 1987 Subaru Hatchback,2004 Dodge SRT-4,2004 Dodge Neon,2004 Ford F-150,1986 Ford
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Sometimes charging,sometimes not!
OK, here's the deal, I have a 96 Kia Sephia, automatic, 1.8. Recently I thought the alternator was out and found out that it's not the problem..after I replaced it with a good one several times. When the start it, the voltemeter will read over 14 volts, which is good. But once it warms up it will fall to 12 volts and that is not normal. All the fuses are good but I don't know about the relays.Therefore its not charging the battery, once it warms up. I'm looking into the wires and if anybody has had this problem before, let me know. Thank you....
I am not sure how it is in your case, but where is the voltage regulator placed?
Some cars have it far from the alternator so that alternator replacement will not fix regulator issues.
when the voltage drops so much, could you tell there is any high current withdraw?
Drives: vehicles: mostly old, cheap & rebuilt - hey, I own a Kia, don't I?
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Dangdest thing happened to me the other day....
My brother-in-law has a newer Jeep cherokee and it quit charging - yanked the alternator, hauled it to the local friendly parts house where they have an alternator tester - it was fine. Put it back on the Jeep and nothing. Puled the battery terminals back off, scraped the heck out of them and the posts, and it worked like a champ. That was a couple of weeks ago, and it's still going. The danged things looked clean enough, but there was a thin layer of hard crust in there that wasn't allowing a good contact - just enough to screw it up. Wish I had tried just cleaning the terminals before going to all the hassle of yanking & re-installing the alternator.
Man, wish my problem was as simple as this. You should see my other post about the Optima of what I've checked. I'm going to install a alternator from Kia this week end in hopes that will solve the problem. That seems like the thing to do from reading several post. On top of that Kia had a update on the alternator/ eecu reprogramming...Anyway Jeeps suck!
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Originally Posted by itwasthedog
Dangdest thing happened to me the other day....
My brother-in-law has a newer Jeep cherokee and it quit charging - yanked the alternator, hauled it to the local friendly parts house where they have an alternator tester - it was fine. Put it back on the Jeep and nothing. Puled the battery terminals back off, scraped the heck out of them and the posts, and it worked like a champ. That was a couple of weeks ago, and it's still going. The danged things looked clean enough, but there was a thin layer of hard crust in there that wasn't allowing a good contact - just enough to screw it up. Wish I had tried just cleaning the terminals before going to all the hassle of yanking & re-installing the alternator.
Drives: vehicles: mostly old, cheap & rebuilt - hey, I own a Kia, don't I?
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A computer controlled alternator?!? Dear God have mercy! What ever happened to the good old Chevy one wire that fit anything with a bowtie for $35, or the Ford alternator with the external regulator for about $50 for both pieces that fit anything with a blue oval? Man, I think the manufacturers are getting way to carried away with the complexity and lack of interchange of their parts.
Drives: two 96 Kia Sephias, 1987 Subaru Hatchback,2004 Dodge SRT-4,2004 Dodge Neon,2004 Ford F-150,1986 Ford
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I know it's not the alternator, so I'm still checking the wires...I noticed there are two of them that were once burned. So it's probably a wire issue. I did replace the whole wire harness that goes from the battery to the starter and alternator. That didn't do anything, so still looking at this time.
I know it's not the alternator, so I'm still checking the wires...I noticed there are two of them that were once burned. So it's probably a wire issue. I did replace the whole wire harness that goes from the battery to the starter and alternator. That didn't do anything, so still looking at this time.
If it's anyting like mine, with a 4 pin connection at the alt. With the key in the on position 3 wires are hot and 1 ground. I ended up putting a reman Kia alt on it to solve the problem. I think yours would probably fall under that update that Kia has also. They went from a 65amp alt to a 110amp. The Optima that I worked on was doing just like yours. I think the customer had 3 alts put on before I towed it to the shop. Once there, I thought it had another bad alt, thinking they had a batch of bad alts. So I tried another AutoZone store...That didn't work either, so I bought one from Kia which solved the problem. Your case might be different, just my two cents...
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Sometimes charging,sometimes not!
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