91 Cam Electrical Problem, Please help

[HURRICANE HONK]

Ok first off the basics, bought my 91 Camry All Trac automatic trans in March 07, with 132k miles on it. Its in the most immaculate condition you will ever see a 91 car period, I love this car and would not trade it for all the tea in china. That said. Since then I put a new(refurb) alternator in, had a full tune-up, and had all fluids and oils flushed and changed. Other then that I just put in gas and regular oil changes. No major work done or parts replaced.

Recently, maybe the past 2 months or so there has been, to what I have concluded anyways, an electrical problem. Lights are dim, but get bright when accelerator is pushed. Windows go down real slow, wipers move slower now. Has rough time starting, but starts everytime, you just turn the key and here it kicking for a few seconds, if ANY electrical is being used (wipers lights windows stereo) it will not start or even turn over until I turn those things off. Also when idiling sometimes all eletrical will die and then turn back on in 1 second, the car doesnt stop just all the electrical stop blinks on and off.

Also, I dont know if this is related, but gas mileage has gone down, I get around 230 miles to the fill-up now.

Please help me fix this problem, any and all advice is greatly greatly appreciated.

-Joe

[toyrolla]

The regulator inside the alternator (maintains steady current) is faulty.

This is common with remanufactured alternators.

In a nutshell:

• Battery is used to start the car.
  
• Alternator is used to provide power to the car and charge battery.
  
• Internal regulator maintains steady load for operation.

With the regulator going bad, there's no means of maintaining current to compensate for the load demand.

There are 2 solutions for this problem.

• [1]Get a factory or high performance alternator (better regulator)
  [2]Get a Voltage Regulator and use whatever alternator you want

If Option 2 is your choice, the I would research voltage regulators made by vendors such as Jacobs:

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku

They are pricey, but they work...

Hope this helps....

[Kep]

Check to see if there is any warranty on the alternator. If yes then swap it out.

A quick test would be to charge up the battery with a battery charger. Probably overnight. You should notice an improvement for the first 30 minutes to an hour until the battery charge drains down. If you don't notice any difference there may be something else causing the problem. Write back.

Kep

[atobe]

any autoparts retailer will do an electrical test for you for free.. just pull your alternator and take it to them they can diagnose our alternator