95 Eldo N* elecrtical or another alternator issue?

[tommysmommy2003]

My 1995 Eldorado ETC 4.6L is currently on its 3rd alternator and 4th battery in 2 months!! This past month all was well, except the instrument panel lights and the lights by my shifter would go in and out. NOW.... I watch my battery volts drop from 13.6 volts to 11.5 all in 1 stoplight, very fast!! then I will start driving and it will rise in volts... i had this battery tested.... it passed!went to autozone and he said" ma'am you are running off pure battery because it looks like the alternator is only pushing out 1 amp" how can that be when he disconected his machine it charged back up to 13.3 volts... i know thats not "pure battery". is it due to this pigtail i hooked up? it came with 3 wires... 2 brown and 1 red. we bolted a brown wire back to the alternator and it worked fine for a month.... now my car isnt reliable. are those other 2 wires important? the schematics in my book dont help and I cant pull this alternator again if its not the alternator.... please help me im in a new city and need my car to work

 

[MAC1]

My 1995 Eldorado ETC 4.6L is currently on its 3rd alternator and 4th battery in 2 months!! This past month all was well, except the instrument panel lights and the lights by my shifter would go in and out. NOW.... I watch my battery volts drop from 13.6 volts to 11.5 all in 1 stoplight, very fast!! then I will start driving and it will rise in volts... i had this battery tested.... it passed!went to autozone and he said" ma'am you are running off pure battery because it looks like the alternator is only pushing out 1 amp" how can that be when he disconected his machine it charged back up to 13.3 volts... i know thats not "pure battery". is it due to this pigtail i hooked up? it came with 3 wires... 2 brown and 1 red. we bolted a brown wire back to the alternator and it worked fine for a month.... now my car isnt reliable. are those other 2 wires important? the schematics in my book dont help and I cant pull this alternator again if its not the alternator.... please help me im in a new city and need my car to work

Where are you buying the alternators? I owned a '94 Eldorado and I happened to go through 3 alternators before the forth one finally worked. And believe me, installing a Northstar alternator is a royal P.I.A. Anyway, when the third one gave out I brought it back to PepBoys and when the parts person came out to test the replacement, sure enough two newly rebuilt alternators tested faulty right out of the box. Finally, I bought a new one instead of a rebuild and that's when the problem was finally solved. If the alternators are faulty then your battery won't last long, which you obviously know by now.

What two wires are you talking about?

You should check for trouble codes. Do the following:

To enter diagnostic mode:

1. Turn ignition "ON." (Do not have to start car)
2. Depress the "OFF" and "WARMER" buttons on the Climate Control Center (CCC) simultaneously and hold until the segment check appears on the Instrument Panel Cluster (IPC).

Hold the OFF and WARMER buttons at the same time for about 4 seconds and you will see On-Board Diagnostics activate. Write down any codes you see which will be a letter followed by a number, such as P110 or P0 and a number.

Here is a link to the Trouble Code List, which will provide explanations for codes. Scroll down and you will see the list.

 

[tommysmommy2003]

thank you for the response!!! I did install another reman this weekend. I had it bench tested first and it passed... the voltage reg was set at 14.0 volts... the p110 code does not pop up just some "keep alive memory" codes... whatever they mean... I think my main problem is the alt. pigtail..... we had to buy a new one and never saw where the old one connected, the new one came with a large red wire, brown/red and brown/white... I hired someone to figure it out and they bolted the brown/red to a bolt on the alt that also has a red wire bolted to it, coming from my battery..... is this correct??? the other 2 were clipped.... cane someone PLEASE LOOK AT THEIR ELDO pigtail and tell me how to hook this thing up.... Im at my whits end with this thing I dont know much about cars and Ive studied the book front to back..... I cant afford to pay another mechanic at this point....