As I was parking my FJ62 after work, I heard a rattling sound that seemed to be coming from the front passenger side under the hood. The sound continued for a about 30 seconds then my brake light and my battery light turned on. There was no sound after that. At that same time I noticed that my amp meter dipped a little below the mid point level. I turned the rig off and on a couple of times but the lights remained on. I just replaced the alternator about 2000 miles ago so I can't believe it's that. Any ideas?
Battery Light & Brake Light Stay On
- Thread starter chepack
- Start date
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Did you open the hood and take a look? I was driving down the freeway and started hearing a rattlling sound that got louder and louder. I pulled over a took a look, but didn't seen anything out of the ordinary. I drove a little farther and the noise continued, until there was a "whup" and the noise stopped, but so did my charging. Eventually I figured out that the alternator pulley had come loose and was wobbling, making noise and eventually cut through the belt.
When mine failed it had more than 60k miles. The real question was why did it fail?
I found the positive lead to the battery was super loose. I had spent the past two weekends running dirt roads with some 4x4 action. It could have been loose for a while. This can eventually lead to failure of the alternator. Or it could be a short.
-mg
