Odd Happenings

[firefighterwhite89]

Not sure exactly what is going on, but i'm pretty sure it will all come down to a short somewhere, just, which one?

Cranked the car and drove to the gas station OMW to work yesterday. Car ran GREAT the entire ride there. Now's when the witchcraft started. I cranked the car(Hadn't noticed anything yet), and before pulling onto the highway I hooked my tablet up to the radio and turned the radio on. I heard this constant tick every half a second or so constantly, then when i played music, it would cut out along with the tick. Then i noticed my headlights were dim bright dim bright constantly similar to when your alternator goes out. It tested with high flying colors though, considering it's less than 6 months old. Battery is around a month old now. Even though the speakers were ticking and the lighting dimming back and forth, my voltage gauge still ready a perfect steady 14.1V with all lights on/heater blowing. I pulled off a few miles down the road, shut the car off, and it hasn't done it since then. Now though my exhaust and fuel pressure gauges tack out twice a second to the exact same rhythm the tick was, though there is no tick anymore. The tick nor the gauge movement never speed up or slow down no matter what RPM i'm sitting at. What could cause this?

On a side note, I have an electric 9 blade fan i replaced my A/C condenser fan with. It has an indicator light wired to it so i can remember it's on(It's so quiet, you have to look at it to see if it's running). After i hit 2,750 RPMs or higher, The indicator LED starts lighting up in a pulse which i'm assuming is the same as the RPM. Is this the tiny amount of electricity that is grounded from the engine to chassis causing the LED to constantly pulse lighting? The Higher the RPM, the brighter it gets. Maybe this issue is linked the the above issue as well?

[2oodoor]

Does it clear up if you unplug tablet and disconnect batterycable and reconnect.? Sounds like a stuck relay or possibly bad diode at alternator.The cig lighter plug is for cigs lol. Put a real powwer point jack in the car, nice one with built in circuit protection. some of those accessory plugs for chargers are funky and dont work well in cig lighter thingy esp an old one.
cig lighter is a controled short circuit so an extended or direct short causes weirdness in many cars.

[firefighterwhite89]

Does it clear up if you unplug tablet and disconnect batterycable and reconnect.? Sounds like a stuck relay or possibly bad diode at alternator.The cig lighter plug is for cigs lol. Put a real powwer point jack in the car, nice one with built in circuit protection. some of those accessory plugs for chargers are funky and dont work well in cig lighter thingy esp an old one.
cig lighter is a controled short circuit so an extended or direct short causes weirdness in many cars.

I tried unplugging the tablet, then the aux cable itself, and even went as far as shutting the radio completely off and it still rhythmically made my lighting dim, bright, dim, bright twice a second.
As for the cig lighter outlet, i had to replace mine and remount it. I'm now using a gnarley marine grade cig lighter outlet, been using it for 6+ years without any issues whatsoever. Could something like maybe anything tiny/metallic be shorting out the cig lighter plug causing a short that would do that?
Once, i had an alternator that was on it's last leg, but it had a good few more signs it was dying, and my voltage gauge never read any higher than 13V max. Right now though, it's sitting at 14-14.2V depending on temperature, the lights don't dim when i push my brakes or anything. This incident only happened once though, but i worry it may be a sign of an impending issues in the near future, and considering i work nights, AND live approximately 50 miles from work one way, I can't have it down for more than a few hours. Especially, since i have that kinda job you can't just up and call out for any reason as such...which really blows.

[Dr_Snooz]

Where did that new alternator come from?

[firefighterwhite89]

came from O'Reilly Auto Parts. Can't seem to remember the company, but I DO remember making damn sure it wasn't a richporter

[firefighterwhite89]

forgot to update all. Was a loose battery bolt that holds the big wires to the battery lug. Somehow, i guess it vibrated loose? Who knows. Either way, now everything works like a charm. Thanks gents.