Maybe it's nothing, but I'm paranoid about my charging system, especially when I'm used to having to watch the gage in my Fiero (had an alternator die on the interstate once in that car).

It's a 983.8 5spd. Whiledriving the voltmeter in the dash sits around the 14/15 volt range right where it's supposed to. If I have the headlights on at a stop light the gage drops to 13 (ok, no biggie, the car is idling). Switch on the rear defroster and it drops to 10, and will barely climb back to 13 when I start driving again or use the gas pedal to idle it up to 2500 rpm or so. It just makes me nervous that it fluctuates that much. I can imagine the defroster is a MAJOR power draw, but even with it off I wouldn't expect the voltage to drop to 13 at idle, I mean my 20 year old Fiero runs 14.5 at idle with the headlights on.

Ok, Comparison may be apples to oranges too, the Fiero has a freshly rebuilt alternator (seriously, it probably only has about 1200 miles on it) and a smaller motor with fewer accessories.

Another symptom I'm seeing is that while I'm driving, but the RPMs are around and below 2000, the voltmeter is 14/15 like it's supposed to, but occasionally I'll notice the headlights flicker. Like the dim for a split second and then are back to normal. It's so quick that I doubt anyone would notice unless they were looking for it, but I've noticed it and can generally repeat it. This is without the rear defroster on, car is fully warmed up.

I've never had a Camaro before, so I just don't know what to expect, and I don't want to find out the hard way that this fluctuation was an indicator of something I should have been looking out for. Thanks in advance!

 

They're cheap and easy enough to replace, I'd take it to autozone and have them test the alternator for you. Honesetly, it sounds like you have a bad ground some where or a bad battery. Cheapest way is to hook it up to a tester.

 

get a good batt and altinator and it will prolly go away.

 

Didn't think about a bad ground, which is funny because that's usually the reason for low voltage in an old car like my Fiero. Alright, I have no idea how old the battery is, so I'll probably start there by at least getting it and the alt tested. If the battery and charging system check out alright, I will probably wait until warmer weather to do anything else with it. It's too cold out to befishing for electrical gremlins.

*EDIT: I was driving along yesterday and saw that my voltmeter had dropped to like 9. I stopped at a McD's to check and make sure that I still had a belt, and the alternator was too hot to touch. Autozone was accross the street, so I got there and had them run their test thingy. Alt had died. Now I have a lifetime warranty brand spankin new alternator, and my voltage problems are gone.