Battery light coming on dashboard

[L84THSKY]

Hey guys

My latest issue. Was driving back from upstate NY Sunday evening after Mountain Biking and the battery light started flickering. I noticed when the car was idling, the light was on, but when I revved the engine, it would go out. Was a bit paranoid till I got home. Turned the car off, measured battery, and it was 12.7V. Started the car and it was about 12.8V. Looks like a bad alternator to some degree. If the alternator was totally dead, I wouldn't have made it home just on battery, besides, the battery was not low when I measured it at home. Then I disconnected the negative and did a current leakage check. The meter said 1.2A; this indicated a short somewhere.

Now, I just replaced the cam positioner sensor on Friday, and I was worried I had shorted something when screwing around under the intake manifold. Maybe a total coincidence, but who knows.

So, either I did short something, the alternator is bad, or a bad ground harness. If the ground harness was bad, I think my battery would have drained over night, and the car wouldn't start, but it starts fine. All electrical components work fine, without any dimming. Since the alternator is original with 157,000 miles on it, I think it was due for replacement anyway. I just removed it and brought it to an alternator rebuild shop down the block.

After reading comments on how long it takes, and what needs to be removed, here is my two cents. Remember, this is an original unit, having never been removed. The whole removal took about 30 minutes. Unbolt the power steering reservoir, and move it out of the way. Remove the two alternator bolts and leverage the alternator off the brackets. In my case the bottom of the alternator was wedged good in the bracket. So to make things easier, unbolting and moving aside the secondary air pump was a good idea. By doing that, you can then jostle the alternator side to side, until the alternator is free from the lower bracket.

I hope the shop finds a problem with the alternator, otherwise I may have to start really digging in deep to find the cause.

Any thoughts on my problem are welcome.

Eric