Electrical woes

[Ben Fenner]

Ok, my problem is solved. I can only tell you (Brian) what happend to me,
and you can make your own conclusions.
A couple people told me that it was my alternator, and I was starting to get
the same idea. I started thinking this because when I revved the car, the
noise would stop and after driving in high revvs for a bit, the warning
lights would turn off too, and my car would be normal again, even if I had
the head lights on, although this could bring back the problem some times. I
replaced the high guage (2, 0?) connection to the possative battery terminal
because it was frayed to the effective gauge of 16 or 20. I could only find
a 4 guage connector at that late hour, so it had to do. (I'm replacing all
the wiring and moving the battery to the trunk ASAP anyway.) This couldn't
have hurt, but didn't help as I had hoped. The problem first started that
day, and I found out it was the first time it had rained in a while. This
made me think I didn't tighten the belt enough when removing my A/C
compressor and the water was making things slip. I tightened up the belt,
and slowly things were getting a little better, but at the same point, the
weather was getting dryer. Finally while in the Auto Zone parking lot fixing
my fog light, I took a good look at the power connection to the alternator.
What do you know! It's loose as a goose. A quarter inch drive ratchet and a
10mm socket later and the problem was fixed perminately. I don't know how
this happend. I think a washer that was once there broke and finally rattled
free. Whatever. My advise to you would be to check your connections, because
the voltage could read correctly, even if this is the case depending where
you're checking the voltage.

I'm sorry that you've taken your dash apart and such. But I believe the
noise you're hearing is completely normal and not a problem. The noise maker
that clicks when you turn your turn signal on is the culprit I believe.
Either that, or something similar in the same serial connection that the
battery light is on. When your alternator isn't charging enough, the light
comes on and it clicks once. Since I was going from charging, to not
charging, very quicky, it made the light flicker and the noise sound like a
constant buzzing/clicking. I hope your fix is as easy as mine.

This mod has been tested and is proven to raise lap times by 0.2% - 0.8% due
to the correct operation of the alternator, and it's resulting power drain.
The effect on quarter mile times was greater and gains of 0.1 - 0.2 seconds
were seen where power is more important. (A gain of time of course meaning
that it took longer to cover the quarter mile with this mod in place.)

-Ben
1994 Sentra SE-R