How to Tell When Your Chevy Needs an Alternator Repair

You Can’t Start Your Car

While the engine’s running, the alternator is recharging your battery. If it fails to do so, then you might park for the night without realizing that your battery’s dead. In the morning, your starter won’t have any electrical power from the battery, and your engine won’t start.

Faulty Alternator vs Bad Battery

When a battery lacks juice, the fault might lie with the alternator or the battery itself. After four or five years, most batteries give up the ghost and need to be replaced. Alternatively, you might have simply left the headlights on overnight, draining the battery’s power.

To tell what’s causing the problem, jump-start your car. When you remove the cables, see how long the engine keeps running by itself. If the engine dies again quickly thereafter, your alternator is to blame. A healthy alternator should use the engine’s energy to power up the battery again along with all the other electronics.

Your Electronic Components Fail

If various electronic car components start to fail while the engine’s running, your alternator isn’t doing its job. Fortunately, the clever systems in a modern Chevy prioritize which electronics lose power first in the event of a faltering alternator.

The components most essential for your road safety, such as headlamps and ignition coils, are the last to lose power. This gives you time to safely pull over when you start to notice less important electronics failing, such as your radio, power seats, or air conditioner.

Your Engine Starts Misfiring

When an alternator fails altogether, your ignition coils won’t have the power to make your spark plugs spark. As a result, your engine will begin to misfire, which is a warning that it’s about to stall.

If you notice misfiring, it’s always wise to pull over and try to figure out the problem. Even if your alternator isn’t to blame, driving with a misfiring engine can rapidly lead to more serious problems like unburned fuel leaking into the catalytic converter.

Have a Local Chevy Dealer Test Your Alternator

If you don’t have a multimeter or the know-how to test your alternator at home, you can always ask a technician at your nearest dealership. They’ll test the alternator’s voltage while the engine’s on, which should ordinarily read between 14.2 and 14.7 volts.

They’ll then switch on all your electronics, one by one, to see how well the altimeter distributes power. Even with everything working, the alternator’s voltage shouldn’t fall below 13 volts, which would indicate a fault and need for repair.

Visit Coughlin GM of Chillicothe today to have your alternator checked and repaired. Coughlin Cars is the proud winner of an award for outstanding ethics in customer relationships.

Image via pixabay.com.

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