Calling all car people ...

[nixer]

I would say its probably not the alternator. My first check would be for a good ground on the battery. I have had several vehicles that either the battery cables or the ground wire has gone bad. If you have a multimeter check for resistance on the negative wire after removing it from the battery. when you do that check you should have a low reading in ohms. You should also check battery cable to body ground seeing how both the aux. and head lights run off of the body ground not the motor ground.

with your car running disconnect the battery if it dies then one field of your voltage regulator is bad which is usually built in the alternator.

[West Coast Jungle]

Ohh yeah, check battery ternimal connections too. If you have a bad connection the alternator will not able to keep the battery charged sufficiently.

[nixer]

with your car running disconnect the battery if it dies then one field of your voltage regulator is bad which is usually built in the alternator.

yes also if it doesnt die you can put a meter to the posative and negative it should be in the 13 volt range if not it isnt charging at full capacity

[AndrewGeibel]

Hey guys thank you for all the advice. I would have responded sooner but I'm in mexico for spring break. I will see what I can get done with my car when I get back to Oklahoma next week. The car made the drive. A couple answers to some questions: It started kinda slowly over the period of a few weeks. I do have the tools and a volt meter to check it out myself. And it's not just the headlights. It's every light in the car ... dome lights gauges and everything.

[DSGB]

take it to autozone. they will diagnose it for free. sounds like an alternator to me.

[HypoPita]

Check your grounds. And check the both ends of both battery cables. Might be lose or corroded.

+1 NEVER underestimate the power of a crummy ground.My buddy had that problem when he wired his subs. The battery is also linked to the car body, so you may want to check that too. At least on my car, that is directly under the battery.

Hope you find out whats wrong eventually. For all I know you already fixed it, haha. Didn't read the 2nd page.

[scales owner]

Alternato!!!!! Is my guess also. And YES if under warrenty by all means go to the dealer. Those are a PAIN to replace on those....Although alot easier w/ the rad., condenser, and fans out the way! lol. Good luck.

[snakelover88]

my 90 honda civic ex was doing the same thing, and it appeared at first to be the altenator but then we discovered a wire that was connected to the alternator was eroded, fixed that and it was fine after that. so check both of those out. We figured that out because when he had then connecter to the alternator he was getting good reading, then he moved a wire and the numbers started going bonkers. Good luck

[mechnut450]

yeah check connections I found the mailman one daytrying to push his car between boxes cause the car died I hooked the battery up and whiel it was pulling acharge i was checking the plugs and the one wire on the back of the alt was loose ( they had replaced it the week before ) and the bolt had backed off. so I tighten it up and suggested he might want ot get some lock tight or a lock nut put on the bolt.. He thanks me every tiem he see me now lol.

[swade_8]

I would say alternator too. The cheap mans test is to start the car put on the headlights(and other electrical) and then disconect batery terminal(Negative, carefully) so the car is running purely on the alternator. If the lights dim down when battery is removed the alternator is not making sufficient power.

Although that use to work on older vehicles before the invention of the on board computers. I would strongly advise AGAINST doing this. What happens when you do that is the altenator sees zero volts coming in and immediatly full fields the altenator which is okay after it stabilizes. However in those few short moments before it stabilizes it can deliver a voltage spike that is capable of frying your computer.
The only correct way to do it is to either have a battery/altenator tester or just use a volt meter and make sure it's around 13.5 volts+.