I have my 1994 Landcruiser 80 series down in Costa Rica and I had a radiator leak so swapped it along with the water pump. I got the truck back yesterday and was running fine but today my wife was driving home and a few lights came on. When she arrived at the house and turned the car off it would not restart. I charged the battery up and did an alternator check with my charger and it gave me a warning light saying there is an issue. Any ideas on how to resolve or is this likely an alternator swap? Thanks in advance
Alternator Issues after replacing water pump and radiator
- Thread starter CarvajalGroup
- Start date
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are the belts tight? alternator plugged in? tested connection from battery to alternator?
Who did the work? Can't make out if you did it or you paid a shop.
The engine oil light is on, as well. Is that new, too? Trying to get a feel for how the work was done, as Water Pump replacement doesn't require anything of the Alternator electrical connections, only the tension adjustor for Belt tension. The simple guess would be that someone forgot to tighten the Alternator clamp and your belts are loose, resulting in belt slip and an alternator that's not spinning up.
The Oil light has me wondering if it's electrical, if it all happened at once, along with your A/T Fluid Temp warning light,...
The engine oil light is on, as well. Is that new, too? Trying to get a feel for how the work was done, as Water Pump replacement doesn't require anything of the Alternator electrical connections, only the tension adjustor for Belt tension. The simple guess would be that someone forgot to tighten the Alternator clamp and your belts are loose, resulting in belt slip and an alternator that's not spinning up.
The Oil light has me wondering if it's electrical, if it all happened at once, along with your A/T Fluid Temp warning light,...
- Thread starter
- #4
The work was done at a trusted mechanic. Also I ordered a new starter that was also installed but we couldn’t get it to align properly and it was making a horrible screeching noise so we put the old one back in and replaced the starter switch. I am not mechanically savvy enough to know locations of all these parts and how they interact. When I got home and put a charger on it all lights are off. I read somewhere that when there is an alternator issue random lights come on. Again once I charged the battery the car started no problem and lights are off. I will have them check connections and belts. Thanks for the help
You might want to have them check the battery. A discharged battery will behave strangely when the Alternator is being asked to work overtime to charge it. If the battery charger gets it to 100% and it stays there for a few days - and everything else operates normally - you may be fine. Watch for discharge of the battery when it's just sitting, as that could indicate a bad battery, a bad alternator, or a problem with the Starter solenoid. Good luck and hoping for the best,
its evident that no charge is occurring looking at the volt meter and the Christmas Tree illumination
this happened a few years back on mine and was the Alt brushes, check all the connections at the back of the alt and give it a gentle tap with a hammer as the brushes sometimes dont make a good contact due to buildup of carbon etc. Mine happened about 120km from home and a couple of taps got it charging again but I replaced the brushes which were worn. no issues since then
this happened a few years back on mine and was the Alt brushes, check all the connections at the back of the alt and give it a gentle tap with a hammer as the brushes sometimes dont make a good contact due to buildup of carbon etc. Mine happened about 120km from home and a couple of taps got it charging again but I replaced the brushes which were worn. no issues since then
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- #7
I took the car to the mechanic today after charging the battery all night. they said the alternator was charging but I believe around 12.6 volts when it was running.
So now my question is - should I change it? I have the option of buying one off amazon for $139 with good reviews or a remanufactured one from Toyota for 255+75 core charge because I won’t be able to return the old one. Any other ideas?
So now my question is - should I change it? I have the option of buying one off amazon for $139 with good reviews or a remanufactured one from Toyota for 255+75 core charge because I won’t be able to return the old one. Any other ideas?
- Thread starter
- #8
So I took my car to the mechanic yesterday because the multiple warning lights came on including battery warning light.when she got home and turned car off the battery and tried to turn it back on but was completely dead. We charged the battery and everything started up as normal and lights went off. **this started after we replaced the water pump, radiator and tried to swap the starter but the replacement was not an exact fit so we went back with the old one (not sure if any of this is related)
The mechanic said that the alternator is working but not at full capacity and when the car is running the voltage is reading around 12.6v per mechanic. tonight it was reading closer to 12.9 or 13 depending if lights were on. The car is running fine but I am thinking it is slowly draining the battery.
I am located in Costa Rica so parts are not readily available like in the US. Here are my options - purchase a remanned one through Toyota (255 + 75 core charge since I cannot return the old one) or buy one off of Amazon for 140.
I already cleaned all the terminal to check if it was getting a bad connection but did not find any issues. Any ideas on what else could be causing this? I was reading that it could be the brushes that need to be replaced but again I am in Costa Rica and would need to send this from the US. Since the alternator is heavy it costs a pretty penny to send here. I am looking for any advice, insight, steps to try etc or if I should just replace it and move on.
this is a 1994 with 117k miles for reference
The mechanic said that the alternator is working but not at full capacity and when the car is running the voltage is reading around 12.6v per mechanic. tonight it was reading closer to 12.9 or 13 depending if lights were on. The car is running fine but I am thinking it is slowly draining the battery.
I am located in Costa Rica so parts are not readily available like in the US. Here are my options - purchase a remanned one through Toyota (255 + 75 core charge since I cannot return the old one) or buy one off of Amazon for 140.
I already cleaned all the terminal to check if it was getting a bad connection but did not find any issues. Any ideas on what else could be causing this? I was reading that it could be the brushes that need to be replaced but again I am in Costa Rica and would need to send this from the US. Since the alternator is heavy it costs a pretty penny to send here. I am looking for any advice, insight, steps to try etc or if I should just replace it and move on.
this is a 1994 with 117k miles for reference
testing to make sure the alternator is bad is the best first step. load test the main power wire at the alternator, can that connection light up a incandescent light bulb? is the charge fuse good? belts tight? My least favorite option is buying the amazon alternator, that may start a whole new series of issues for you. if your looking to save money rebuilding the alternator is pretty straightforward is there any shop willing to do that? Or if not a full rebuild swap brushes and test the rectifier inspect the slip rings? The alternator rebuild parts for this one but many other cars and these alternator rebuild parts are very light and easy to ship. if thats not an option you might even have somebody here willing to ship you a good used one. We're looking for 13.4-14.5 volts
- Thread starter
- #10
update - I found a super cool shop in Costa Rica and he basically remanufactured my alternator for me in an hour and half and it cost $150. I went ahead and had him also do my starter as he only works on those two items. Thanks for all your help
umm.. the starter is the easiest job to do, and I had a 2.2 kwh which weighs a lot. I think you need another mechanic since this is not at all a hard car to work on.
You want hard? Work on a Mini Cooper or a Porsche