Well I took off the alternator and took it to Mississauga Alternator like Broc suggested. He confirmed its not charging. But he was confused about it not being from a North American car and didn’t know what spare parts to order so i’ll see what he says when he calls me back tomorrow. Does anyone know if the SR20DE alternator is the same internally? Also I think I found the PS leak, seems that we forgot to tighten one of the hoses completley, so it was spinning. Tightened that down and filled with fluid, i’ll see if anything leaks out tomorrow morning. So if I get the alternator rebuilt hopefully that will solve all my problems. I’m crossin my fingers.
Also should I wait until I have car running perfect and walbro pump put in before I wire up my safc?
Thanks for the tips guys! I’ll keep you posted, can’t wait to start driving.
So I took my alternator thinking it was bad to Mississauga Alternator repair and the guy tells me hes gonna rebuild it. So I did that and payed way too much, but thats besides the point, I just wanted it right away so I could get the car running. Now, I put the alternator in, hook everything up and proceed to start the car. I hooked up the volt meter to see what was going on. So I start the car, was a rough since batter was low, and guess what…STILL loosing charge, it was down to like 10.4v and not charging at all, I also checked at the terminal on the alternator, it was really low there too??? Can anyone tell me what the story is here? I am so stressed out and running out of ideas. Did I just pay to restore a working alternator while there is something else wrong?
I guess I better give Chris a call to come back and look at the wiring, so does that mean that my alternator could have been good and the alternator place ripped me off?
sounds to me like the alternator isn’t charging so check the wires for that. im just up the street from you so i can probably come by and take a look if you still dont know whats going on.
Ground can be a huge problem. If your system (alternator, engine etc) is not grounded correctly it could cause problems. Check grounds, as a rebuilt alternator should be mint.
Another thing to consider is the regulator - if the regulator failed the ECU could very well be fried BUT since you said the car runs when boosted the ECU might be fine.
If the voltage is higher than 14.4 volts like 15 volts or lower than 12.5 while running your alternator is probably shot or the regulator is. At any rate take it back to whoever rebuilt it. Or bite the bullet and get another SR20DET alternator.
The wiring is probably fine if the car ran fine at some point I’d lean towards the alternator/ regulator before worrying about an ecu or wiring. If the alternator is fine then would look into larger problems such as wiring BEFORE hooking up another ECU and possibly damaging it as well.
Troubleshoot as much as possible as a minor oversight can cause large problems.
I had a similar problem with my KA24DE where the car wouldn’t start and my battery would drain if not driven for a few days. The wiring is stock and I couldn’t find out what the problem was as nothing aftermarket on the car could drain the battery that fast. I ended up running a 4 gauge cable from the starter to the battery and that solved the problem.
I hope this helps.
Have you made sure everything upfront in the engine bay is grounded properly? You engine needs to be grounded to the chassis, since you relocated you battery did you move reconnect the negative grounds from the body to the engine? Have a look at that stuff.
Like Sean said check the voltage regulator aswell.
Oh and to add, for some reason my car wont start charging when I start it up until I rev the engine, then it kicks in.
Well i’m gonna go try and take a look now see if I can see anything. Just trying to think what else could be wrong. Should I try boosting the car then disconnecting battery and see if it dies? Then see if the alternator is working or not? I dunno, I hope its something obvious that way I can find it hopefully. Thanks for the suggestions, i’m gonna go play with it for a bit now and see if anything changes.
Try running the car directly off of another car, ie, use another battery. Watch the voltage, and see if you notice any changes. Also, check resistance across the main grounds, that is important!! If you have a high resistance you have a problem somewhere, next thing is to just break down the harness and see where it is.
** I fried my ecu before, one of the jumpers to the ignition was blown from a short, i soldered it and boom, worked like a charm. I highly doubt u fried your ecu, in many cases you wouldnt even be able to start the car. I couldnt start mine.
get a multimeter if you dont’ already have one, with the car off see if you’re drawing current, if you are, then there’s your problem, now wire by wire figure out what is demanding power when it doesn’t need it.
if my timing chain didn’t snap a few days ago I’d come and help but I have my own ish to deal with right now
and for all the people chirping about S14’s… the wiring is actually easier for S14 SR -> S13 chassis than S13 SR -> S13 chassis.
I know that doesn’t apply here since he did s14 -> s14 but still. to wire my s14 sr -> s13 I only had to do 3 wires and it runs fine, 4 if you want to use the stock tach.
that mickey mouse crap on freshalloy for wiring s14’s is absolute garbage.
