While not quite as exacting as removing and specifically testing an alternator, you can test your car's charging system which comprises primarily of the alternator.
Use a volt meter to read your battery voltage with the engine off. It should be around 12 volts.
Start the car and recheck the voltage. It should be reading higher (maybe 12.80 - 13.50 or so). If it is reading higher, your charging system is putting "juice" into the battery. If it is reading lower, the charging system isn't doing anything and the car is simply running off of the battery.
For those who are really in a bind and don't have a volt meter, you could do the old trick of starting the car and then disconnecting the battery w/ the car running. With the battery disconnected, if the car continues to run, your charging system is at least doing something - or else the car would die. This is not very sophisticated but can often help pinpoint problems (I did this once to an old subaru. The engine died so I thought the alternator was bad but then discovered a wire had corroded and broken loose. I fixed the wire, did a charging test - which was positive - and the camper drove off happy).
Good luck!
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Wednesday, December 19th, 2007 AT 12:57 PM
