alternator issues, somethings killing it, but what

[roame86]

After fixing the idlen and stalling issue, my 94 lesabre battery light keeps coming on and eventully shuts down, ive replaced the battery and alternator 3 times, my question is what can continously kill an alternator??? Please help

[carriedi]

you need to check your charging system, starter draw and battery condition. Check to see if you have a battery draw. Check the amperage the alternator is putting out when it charges the battery right after you start the engine up.

You could have something drawing the battery down and over working the alternator. Why have you changed your battery and alternator three times? and what is the time between these replacements? a bad battery can take out an alternator. But usually a bad alternator won't take out a good battery. It will just drain the battery. A good battery should be able to be brought back up to charge. The battery light comes on when the output draw is bigger that the alternator output. (the system voltage goes too low) is there something that is drawing too much current?

[whysaabme]

I own a 2004 LeSabre that doesn't have heated external mirrors. Besides the mirrors themselves, what else would I need to replace to have heated external mirrors? The car has just under 70K miles, so a little expense would be acceptable. Kevin

[carriedi]

well it gets a little complicated. do you have manual AC or do you have automatic AC?

it matters because the heated mirrors work on the defrost circuits

[whysaabme]

It is a manual heater/AC system.

[carriedi]

you probably have most of the wiring in the system but you may have to modify a couple of things. here's a couple of diagrams you can compare

start from the defogger relay and go from there

[faheem]

you need to check your charging system, starter draw and battery condition. Check to see if you have a battery draw. Check the amperage the alternator is putting out when it charges the battery right after you start the engine up.

You could have something drawing the battery down and over working the alternator. Why have you changed your battery and alternator three times? and what is the time between these replacements? a bad battery can take out an alternator. But usually a bad alternator won't take out a good battery. It will just drain the battery. A good battery should be able to be brought back up to charge. The battery light comes on when the output draw is bigger that the alternator output. (the system voltage goes too low) is there something that is drawing too much current?

[07Lacrosse]

Hi all,
Have a 2009 Buick Lacrosse 3.8L that has slight oscillating power surges between 37 and 42mph, with no
driveability issues other than this one and no DTC codes. Graphic monitoring of the engine ignition timing
with Torque software indicates oscillations between 23 and 27 degrees in precise agreement with the power surges.
Lab scope indicates Ignition Control Module (ICM) X3, X18 and camshaft signals to the ICM are within parameters.
IC timing control from the Powertrain Control Module (PCM) to the ICM appear within parameters. Has anyone
experienced this same issue and if so were you able determine a solution?

[carriedi]

you should look at what your transmission is doing when the surges are going on. Watch your over drive and your torque converter lock up. See if they are switching back and forth

[07Lacrosse]

Thanks for the response carriedi. I failed to mentionthat was my first concern. I had a transmission rebuilder here at a local transmission
shop perform a test drive and he ran both transmission and engine diagnostics with his Snap-On Versus and concluded from the results
and experience (42 years in field) the transmission and converter are not the issue and he could not determine cause of problem.

[carriedi]

if you can feel it, it should show up somewhere. Engine,trans... Does it show up in the engine rpm's when you graph it?