1JZ-GTE Cressida Charging problems.

[Cruiserhead05]

I have spent the better half of today searching and reading so if this has been covered, my apoligizes.

I recently purchased an 89 cressida with a 1jz swap. Overall the swap is very clean and was said to have been done by a respectable shop.

However, the other night in traffic i noticed the red battery light on the dash started to flicker. Their appeared to be no loss of electrical power however so i simply continued to monitor it. Once i started to move again, at highway speeds, the light went away but returned maybe 5 minutes later.

I made it home with no problems and no apparent simptoms. Seeing as it was late and i was tired, i didnt worry about it at the time. The next morning i drove about 60 miles. The battery light was now lit the entire time but seeing as i had very little electronics on, there was again no real symptoms. That night however, on my way home from work i had the headlight on, stock stereo, windshield wipers, and defrost on full blast.

Everything was fine when all of the sudden my stereo lost power, i soon realized my dash lights were going dim, then my wipers started to slow. I was able to get off the road to a well lit parking lot where the vehicle died. Tried to jump it, but it wouldn't work so i bought a new battery.

I have a new alternator coming tomorrow and hope my new battery will have enough juice to get me around tomorrow before i have time to put the alternator in.

Does it sounds like the alternator is my issue?

I had autozone check it and they connected their machine to the battery and said it appeared to be producing 11volts so they thought the alt. was fine. Keep in mind, this was at 1000rpms and no electrical load.

 

[tlo86]

if the alt failed the test its a good indication, i took my alternator out of the car to have it tested worked fine... my problem was the alternator connection. doublecheck your grounds anf if the new alt doesnt help start looking elsewhere

 

[Cruiserhead05]

Swapped in my new alternator this morning. Had to swap the pulleys as well.

Started it up and the battery/charge light was gone and everything seemed normal. Also went ahead and looked all over the engine bay for poor grounds, everything looked good.

 

[tlo86]

i would take the old alt and have it tested - it is free after all. just to make sure

 

[Cruiserhead05]

There are few places in my town that i would expect to do that, unless of course autozone or the like is setup to test alternators once they're off the engine.

 

[Cruiserhead05]

****NOTICE****

It appears i spoke too soon. The cressida died again today b/c the battery got drained while driving. Sucks b/c i still dont know what's doing it but it kinda of good b/c i should be able to return the alternator and new battery i had bought.

ANY SUGGESTIONS would be gladly appreciated. I've spent alot of time looking for a ground issue but everything looks fine.

Silly question, but do the 1jz's have external voltage regulators?

 

[tlo86]

its all internal. have that tested, and if your battery is new i would doublecheck the wire from the alt to the battery make sure it looks good. when my car had charging troubles it was because of that line

 

[Cruiserhead05]

Supposed to leave out of town in 2 days, i hope i can get this worked out.
I checked the "eng" fuse in the kickpanel. It, along with all other fuses appeared fine.

It is at a local shop right now so it's tough getting by there to look at the suggested items.

One thing to note, when using the new alternator(1996 SC300) i do not get the red battery warning light on the dash like i did before with the stock alternator.

Thanks for the comments, and keep them coming.

 

[Cruiserhead05]

Something else i wanted to add and possibly verify.

Since i read the Sc300 alternator were the best replaced i looked around for them, but soon found my current alternator uses more of an oval/square plug then the typical circle one. As a result, i went with a 95+ SC300 alternator, it went in fine but as stated above, is not throwing the battery warning light like the original one did.

Is it possible i could be using the wrong alternator?

 

[aphxero]

Yeah the different plugs do the same thing. Make sure sense, charge, and ign are all hooked up the same.

Got a pic?

you can kinda ghetto it if you want. I'll tell you if you care.

 

[Cruiserhead05]

Woke up this morning with a voicemail from the shop it was at. They said it turned out to be the wiring b/t the alt and the fusebox which would be the three pronged sense charge, ign wires.

I'll be heading over there soon to find out why they were the problem.

In the mean time, they said they could get it to wanted idle and you had to keep your foot on the gas to keep it running. Any ideas what would be causing this?(i'll start searching the forum now). It's odd to me that when i got the car the swap run great and showed no running or wiring issues and now all these things are popping up.