Your car’s alternator keeps your battery charged and powers every electrical item in your car as the engine is running. Without it, your battery will discharge in a short time, and ultimately your car stop running.
Modern cars are heavily reliant on electricity to keep them going. The engine could keep running by itself, but the moment there is not enough voltage to produce the electrical spark for each piston the engine stop. Additionally, your car has power steering, anti-lock brakes, and possibly a motor room fire management system; all require electrical energy and cease to function once the battery goes dead.
Your car includes a red ignition warning light
This illuminates when you turn on the ignition and goes out after the engine starts. If the light stays on, or seriously when driving, this means that there’s a fault while using the charging system as well as your battery isn’t getting charged. However, it doesn’t always signify the alternator has failed, it can be something more important.
Additionally, the red warning light is just a small LED bulb, in addition to being with another bulb, if it can blow. If it does blow, you will not understand the red warning light and so, if a fault occurs, you’ll not know until you find your battery goes dead. Another fact that you may find surprising could be that the small voltage that flows through for a warning light acts just as one agitator; it tells the alternator to create electricity and charge battery. Amazingly, on some cars, in the event the warning bulb blows, the alternator does not work therefore your battery goes dead.
Alternators might be expensive
so before going to the cost of finding a replacement, its worth just testing to find out if your alternator is faulty, or even tho it’s a blown warning light or other electrical problem. You can do this easily simply by using a voltmeter.
You will have to start your car or truck’s engine to check your alternator, so it’s recommended that you get everything ready first and locate the alternator. On the back from the alternator are wires associated with push-in plugs, although on older car’s you might find the wires are connected by nuts. A couple of the wires are thick, you are usually redone other can vary in color; you can ignore these wires. However, you’ll locate a small thin wire; disconnect it through the alternator, this wire connects to the warning light which is the agitator.
Turn in your engine. Set the voltmeter inside the variety of 6 to 18 volts. Connect the 2 alligator clips for the end of the wires from the meter on the two terminals who have thick wires attached. The red voltmeter wire connects towards the alternator terminals labeled “B”, Bat” or “+.” The black wire connects for the terminal labeled “T”, or “-.” Read the meter. It will read between 10 and 14 volts, depending on the speed from the engine, if it is working correctly. If it’s below 10 volts rev the engine slightly to see in the event the voltage increases, when it does your alternator is okay. If it does not, or reading is low or even no reading whatsoever, in that case, your alternator needs replacing.
