Last night i'm driving along after a hard days work in the dark afternoon when all of a sudden the radio starts shortning out when i'm at low rev.......hmmm ok its a Mazda 1987 turbo 2 rx7 what ya gonna do (its normal) especially with this quike change to cold wheather. I keep driving listening to shortining out radio, since its a bit cold i turn on the heater, thats when all went array, my radio...............died... and my lights were very dim that is until i got to a stop light using my brakes, which in turn completly killed all the lights or anything that had electricity running though it. However the car keeped running, however kinda staggered when i accelarated.

Today the car would not start, i had to jump it after which it ran fine, i had a couple of shops run a drain test, before however i had to recharge my completly dead battery after which the test indicated a bad waveform, so bad alternator, however i am not sure if it is, the mechanics said that if its not the battery then its the electric something or other (as in they have no clue, just that its something in the electricity)

I know that s4 2nd gens had big big problems with their electricity which some of which was fixed in the "revised" s5 or 1989 - 91 rx7's. I had this problem last year when i bought the car exactly this time of year but it wasnt nearly as bad. I mean i had to still every now and then jump start it and the lights or radio maybe dimmed but nothing that completly killed it.

my ? is, first should i just get the duralast alternator at autozone or checkers or whatever or is there an "blessed" alternator out there that will fix my problem? any suggestion? My freind has taken the alternator out and we are going to have it checked now, i'm leaning toward its bad but in case, any sugg. or good recommendations for an alternator or fix.

Thanks.
Sergei The Saint

 

p.s. it was preatty interesting to see the mechanic try and figure out how many cylinders my car it. hehehe

 

ok just got back, it is the alternator, however still i dont know exactly what is the difference in the duralast or the beck/arnle alternator. What is a good alternator, and does an alternator accually effect your perfomance?

 

stop! stop! too many replys............................................ .................................................. ....................

 

A good alt is a must , the alt runs every thing and charges the battery. the battery is to start the car. The alt runs all ,if it is weak the computer will not have the volts to run the ing, and fuel system ,the lights will be dim, the radio will have low volume ,the battery will go low and not crank the car, A high amp low start alt is what you need in life.

 

see above- auto electrician uk.