Swifty's never-ending project thread!

[Swifty1638]

ok, lets say you are right for a minute. How does that fix the fact the windows or locks dont work?

[Speedfreak]

Like I said, WEIRD things happen when the alt's regulator isn't functioning normally. My car did similar when my alt was dying, and had other weird things happen on customers cars over the years when alt's are dying. After I replaced all those alt's.. back to normal, everything works, and no weird symptoms.

Forget the locks and windows for a moment and change the alt. If the windows and locks still don't work, get out of dsm's. :biggrin:

[Shane@DBPerformance]

Check your alt fuse too.

[311evo]

Fuses, relays. etc. There's a chance too if the voltage was being unregulated that it could have spiked and possibly fried something.

[mlomker]

If the windows and locks still don't work, get out of dsm's.

I can understand how that might affect windows & locks when the car is running but those two things should work without the motor running. At that point wouldn't it be just battery voltage?

[Speedfreak]

I can understand how that might affect windows & locks when the car is running but those two things should work without the motor running. At that point wouldn't it be just battery voltage?

I just disregarded that part of it.:biggrin: And I don't have an explanation for why it would happen when not running, but from the weird/unexplainable things I've seen happen due to alternators, it's a good starting point. But yeah, low or inconsistent voltage from the batter could cause the same issues I guess.

I've watched too many people have a symptom or two, have a logical path to take in regards to diagnosing, only to chase all sorts of other things first. I just wanted to point to one thing for him to check first, then go from there.

[Goat Blower]

Check your alt fuse too.

Bingo. I had this happen last year, or the year before, can't remember.

[Swifty1638]

alt fuse? I pulled that..is there a different fuse on that box that I should have looked at?

this all was found after grabbing dinner in the car yesterday..it ran, drove fine (was running a little different AF's), and the windows didn't work. Now, with the car off, only the key on, I see the windows not working, power locks not working. Remember, when I re-ran the wire from the alt straight to the batt side of the battery cut off switch (using a 80a fuse) I pulled the stock 80a fuse on the fuse box under the hood. As far as I can tell, there's nothing else that changed. looking at the WDO fuse, ALT fuses are ok, and the alt relay gets warm (prolly doin it's thing) even when the car is off, and the alt isn't charging the system. Who knows at this point.

[Super Bleeder!!]

The alt fuse is a big mofo that is actually bolted down in the fuse box. Are you sure you checked it?

[Swifty1638]

ok, just did some research, tested a theory, and it fixed it.

When rewiring the alt to the rear, I pulled the main black alt fuse sitting at an angle on that fuse box, then re-tightened the bolts. BUT, other things also get power from that fuse, and because the fuse wasn't there to bridge that connection things didn't work, being the windows, locks, and whatever else. I went out, put the fuse back in, and instead pulled the connector with the 2 8ga. white wires on the one side, and taped that end off, but reassembled the bolts back into place, this time with the fuse in place. Now, everything works :)