1993 Buick Century
#1
01-18-08, 08:13 AM
1993 Buick Century
My wife and I have a 1993 Buick Century, with the 3.3L V-6. Great car other than some odd miss happenings this morning. My wife left for work, and came back about 15 minutes later. She told me she couldn't get the car to climb above 45MPH without it sputtering, and the battery gauge was reading in the red on the plus side of the gauge. I took the car out, and it ran great for me, I was able to get up to 75MPH without a problem, and the battery gauge never went much past 13V. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
#2
01-18-08, 09:55 AM
Group Moderator
I would take and have a charging system check run on it. It has enough miles on it that the alternator could be going (and your wife just caught it at a bad time). Low alternator output would certainly have those symptoms on the diagnosis list.
Last edited by the_tow_guy; 01-18-08 at 07:15 PM.
#3
01-18-08, 10:22 AM
Would it also cause a high alternator output? Because it was reading to the extreme right of the gauge, which would indicate to me that it was overcharging the battery.
#4
01-18-08, 10:48 AM
It could have a bad regulator. Those are often built into the alternator. A defective regulator would show up on a test ran through for the alternator.
If the regulator was bad you could have over charge/under charge.
If the regulator was bad you could have over charge/under charge.
#5
01-18-08, 01:17 PM
I'll take the alternator to a parts store tonight and have them test it. Sounds to me like it's not too short of failing completely. Thanks guys, I'll let you know what's going on.
#7
01-18-08, 08:19 PM
Never got a chance to take the alternator out tonight. Been too busy with stuff around the house. Tomorrow though I'll be taking the car into town so that I can just replace the alternator, I don't want to risk being on a trip somewhere, and have the alternator just up and quit on me. That happened to my parents back in the 80s. Going down US1 in Miami Fla. and the alternator in our car literally disintegrated, in the middle of July in the sweltering heat...
#8
01-19-08, 02:29 PM
The alternator in the car was toast. When they tested it at Advanced Auto today, it was registering 17 volts, and like 15amps if that. Thanks all to responded
#10
01-19-08, 05:36 PM
Originally Posted by the_tow_guy
Oh well, there goes another towing job I could have gotten.......
