Well, today I was driving down the road with the stereo playing at my typical volume when all of a sudden all the lights on my dash (digital readouts) shut off for a split second, then come back on. At the exact same time this happens, my stereo drops in volume by a good 10-15db and gets extremely distorted. It basically sounded like my subs cut off, mids stopped playing and tweets got extremely distorted and dropped in volume.

This only lasted 1 second at most, but immediately after it happened my car started having major voltage drop when the bass hit (mind you, I've never even had my lights dim with this setup). I don't have a voltmeter in my car, so I don't know exactly *how much* it drops.....but when the voltage drops low enough that it shuts down the CD player you know it's not good

Anyways....so I shut down the sub for the rest of my trip (5 more miles), get to my destination and am in there for about 10 minutes. Come back out and everything seems fine after a few miles of heavy play again, voltage drop appears to be gone as I have no more light dimming on my dash digital readouts.

Then, about 5 miles from work my voltage suddenly drops so low that it almost stalls my car (I had no light dimming, etc previous to this on my trip back to work....all appeared well). And now it's having major voltage problems......pressing the brake peddle causes the lights to dim, and operating two power windows at the same time causes the voltage to drop low enough it shuts down the CD player. Not only this, but I now also have very, very audible alternator whine

Any ideas WTF is going on? My only thought is that there is a problem internally in my alt which caused AC rippling, etc, which wreaked havoc on my electrical system and stereo equipment.

Sounds like you are getting some kind of short in the power system. Could you car's voltage regulator be going bad? I'd also look into the alt like you mentioned, though that is not so common.

Just don't leave it and let a fire get started.

But it's so random.....it's not like hitting a bump and causing a wire to jiggle causes it. And no fuses are blowing.....if it were a short, I'd more than likely be popping fuses.

True, electrical problem are so sucky .....you get under the hood and smell for burning electronics smell?

Alt whine = teh sux0r

I'm hoping *whatever* happened didn't damage an amp or my HU :( If the whine doesn't go away, that may be what's happened though.......

Haven't looked under the hood yet. Still at work

Sounds like a relay or circuit breaker heating up. I had that problem (sort of) in my Lincoln Mark VIII. Had nothing to do with the stereo though, but the analogy is good here so.

I would be driving at night with the headlights on for an hour or so, all of sudden my headlights would shut off (oh chit) and stay off for a while, come on half-bright and act weird. I would shut off the car and wait a bit and then it would be fine for a period of time again. It did go faster to the oh chit condition if my brights were on. In this case is was pretty easy to find, I yanked the dash and my headlight switch was partly melted, but in the Lincoln it is a breaker and not a fuse so it kept resetting itself.

Sounds to me like you have something faulty that you are overloading with high loads. I would test the regulator, and also your grounds (I ran into a similar problem in my 328i due to my subs shaking a not so tightened battery terminal loose) as if they have a slightly loose connection it will also get worse underload, and lastly straight up check the alt anything electrical can go out in a weird way.

Either way it sounds like an FM problem (fugkin magic) but my real guess is a ground connection someplace, hopefully for you right at the battery.

Good luck and let us know what you find.

And I bet you'll never guess.........I just drove home from work, and all is well again :confizzled:

Alt whine gone. Voltage stable.

Really sounds like a flaky connection then. Was the weather different today?

Sounds to me like you need an H701.

And I bet you'll never guess.........I just drove home from work, and all is well again :confizzled:

Alt whine gone.  Voltage stable.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I would'nt count on it being gone. My freakin car has been giving me all sorts of electrichell problems. And now that I have taken my whole system out the freaking windows slow down if I raise them both at the same time where as they were working just fine with the system installed. Not to mention the recent problem of having to jiggle the ignition to so the stereo would power on at startup.......freakin electric-HELL crap!!! Anyways good luck and please keep us posted I want to see how and where the problem was coming from....

Hey, I forgot I also had another problem recently and it was caused by the housing on my inline fuse near the battery breaking at the threads, I caused the power connection to be flakey as well. Just a thought to be sure and check the simple crap first....

hook it up to an ODBII.

Could also be a loose or missing ground connection somewhere.

Scan the ecm (Autozone or similar will generally do it for a pittance)

But otherswise, You sir prolly have a loose ground (NOOB).

Seriously though, Good Luck amigo.

Take the DMM and check grounds, no test light BS.

At Checker (if you have those) they will rent you the OBDII computer for free (requires a drivers license and credit card#) . I pull up, hook it to the car and get what I need and leave.

You need a cap

Hopefully you can get the problem fixed. At least the vehicle still runs.

Well, today I was driving down the road with the stereo playing at my typical volume when all of a sudden all the lights on my dash (digital readouts) shut off for a split second, then come back on.  At the exact same time this happens, my stereo drops in volume by a good 10-15db and gets extremely distorted.  It basically sounded like my subs cut off, mids stopped playing and tweets got extremely distorted and dropped in volume. 

This only lasted 1 second at most, but immediately after it happened my car started having major voltage drop when the bass hit (mind you, I've never even had my lights dim with this setup).  I don't have a voltmeter in my car, so I don't know exactly *how much* it drops.....but when the voltage drops low enough that it shuts down the CD player you know it's not good 

Anyways....so I shut down the sub for the rest of my trip (5 more miles), get to my destination and am in there for about 10 minutes.  Come back out and everything seems fine after a few miles of heavy play again, voltage drop appears to be gone as I have no more light dimming on my dash digital readouts.

Out of curiosity, what kind of amp are you running?  What i would do is this, check all grounds to make sure it isn't grounding out, test the voltage on the battery using a volt meter, make sure all connections on the battery is cool, oh yeah, make sure there is no corrosion on the terminals, and if all of that checks out, I would suggest an 2nd battery. 

Then, about 5 miles from work my voltage suddenly drops so low that it almost stalls my car (I had no light dimming, etc previous to this on my trip back to work....all appeared well).  And now it's having major voltage problems......pressing the brake peddle causes the lights to dim, and operating two power windows at the same time causes the voltage to drop low enough it shuts down the CD player.  Not only this, but I now also have very, very audible alternator whine

Any ideas WTF is going on?  My only thought is that there is a problem internally in my alt which caused AC rippling, etc, which  wreaked havoc on my electrical system and stereo equipment.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

so what was the final prognosis & outcome

so what was the final prognosis & outcome

That my car took a chit on my yesterday....leaving me stranded 30 miles from him

Voltage dropped suuuppppeeeerrrr low, stalled my car as I was pulling into a parking spot. Had someone jump me.....but then my alternator started smoking and squeeling real bad......So, looks like my alt is junk and hopefully didn't take the battery with it

Pisses me off too......I was jamming to my new Eagles CD, that I just bought 10 minutes before my car died. I didn't even get all the way through Hotel California :(

That sucks.

Excuse to buy HO alt now??

Naw.....don't really need one right now, will probably never need one in the future......not worth the extra expense and wait time (considering I need my car running right now, and not 4 weeks from now when the alt arrives)

I'm glad Ford put a 160A alt in my car.... they are like $250 for a refurb from Nappa

Edited December 7, 200519 yr by Beat_Dominator

Turns out my luck ain't so bad this go 'round

My belt tensioner pulley disintegrated and fell off of the engine, causing the belt to slip, causing the alternator to not charge properly, causing my battery to not get recharged. The smoke and squeeling was the belt slipping, and not the alt itself apparently

Lucky bastard....

...how did you not notice this before?

Turns out my luck ain't so bad this go 'round

My belt tensioner pulley disintegrated and fell off of the engine, causing the belt to slip, causing the alternator to not charge properly, causing my battery to not get recharged.  The smoke and squeeling was the belt slipping, and not the alt itself apparently

And the price of the tensioner assembly and new belt will probably run the same as a new alt. Damn cars.