so the story starts out like this, about a few weeks ago i start getting a whining noise here and there from my bad alternator, turns out the bearings were shot. so i head to autozone to pick up a remanufactured one with a lifetime warranty (not bad i thought), works fine all through the night. i get up to leave the next morning and my voltage reads 10 volts with the car running!! (JUST installed alternator i'll have you know). so i hook up a voltmeter to the alternator DIRECTLY, and start the engine. what do you know? the voltmeter reads NOTHING! then suddenly the engine rpms drop (like engine bogs down) and there is voltage from alternator! well i take it to autozone, they test it (3 times!) and the tester said its good. so they just give me a new remanufactured one (1 year warranty) and they test before they give it me. i put this one in my car and it lasted for about a week or so, and now it just wont charge my system any more! (not running) EVERY time i start my car the voltage now reads 10 volts, which is not good, becuase my battery will soon die. and the engine idle speed is all messed up too. (automatic) when it is in drive the rpms should be 600 rpm (from the book and i know that from owning it for 3 months now) but instead sits at a steady 750 rpm! and when it is park it should be 750 rpm but instead sits at 900-1000rpm or above....!!!!

as you can tell this is very infuriating! any help would be GREATLY appreciated...thank you!

 

Maybe check your fusable links. There will be one on the starter that is for voltage input to the alternator.

 

lol i use to work at a local autozone there like the walmart of the autopart industry i now like to use napa parts when it comes to core part considering i went through about 3-4 starters from advance in a couple of years just fyi and i know you pain lol i think we all do here

 

Oh yeah autozone...... spend the extra money and get a good part instead of replacing the same one over and over lifetime or not.

 

i had a problem like that my brand new alternator would charge only when it wanted to....i eventually gave up and went to an alternator shop an got the alt converted to a 1 wire alt now i jus have an extra pos wire run direct to the bat constant....no problems since then

 

You can get kits at summit (and others I'm sure) that convert the alt to a one wire. All it is basicly doing is self ingniting internaly. As they are now the sense voltage through a wire hooked to the starter.