I have not started my car in awhile and the battery was dead due to me not putting a trickle charger on it. When i attached the battery charger it seem to charge for a second then kick out of charging then repeating. without the charger i got 0 power to anything not even the chime with the key in. now i removed the cables from the battery and went direct to battery and it seemed to charge fine.

Now I went out and threw jumper cables on the car got it started and running. Every time i went to put load on the system (turning the wheel the car wanted to die) I could keep it running a bit by keeping the rpm up. but once the car shut off it was 100% doa. '

I did have the connection short on top of the alternator not too long back and melt the wire( i believe from the bolt not being tightened all the way. I redid the connection with a new connector and did not have issues for a few weeks.

Now the weird thing is the battery voltage on the cobb is erratic from 13-14.3 volts..

where does the wire from the alternator run to as i may rerun that whole wire?

could the alternator be going bad? i seen the DIY and doesnt seem to hard to pull out and i have a spare here just dont want to fight the pully again for my unorthodox one.

any other ideas or checks something tells me its the one wire or something with the charging system. I just had the battery checked a few months ago and it was good.

 

On the RX-8 the voltage regulator is internal to the alternator and controlled by the PCM

 

Until you have a decent amount of charge in the battery I wouldn't get too concerned

How old is the battery? Are the connections between the battery and the cables clean?

After you have a good charge try again and see if it runs OK.

The load from the power steering is large...and if the battery is really low the alternator will have to fight to keep up, if it can at all

 

it is 2-3 years old kenitik amg battery. connections are clean, good, and tight. i put a battery charger on it before i left and may try again tomorrow. the connection on top the alternator is still good too. the huge concern is the battery charger like cycling from charging to not charging with the wires hooked to the terminals on the battery and solid charging with the wires off

 

Batteries aren't really happy about being killed totally flat. You may have to buy a new battery if that one won't hold a charge

 

swapping the alternator will tell the tale, I think you may have burnt up something inside of it as when they go bad the wiring to it can get fried, but there's a possibility that the battery could be the problem too or it also got fried too

 

yeah i may take it and have it load tested again. if thats the case ill end up buying 2 one for the front and another for the audio in the trunk. I have added quite a bit of electronics with the turbo oil pump, gauges, and a few others.

alternator sway is a option too, just want to make sure there is no other issue beyond that. being the volt regulator is internal as you say that seem possible

 

do either of you know where the wire on top of the alternator post runs too? i may trace that wire to make sure no other issues on top of the battery and alternator itself when i get time.