Problem 94 Camaro

[crazycooter]

Not sure whats going on, but when I'm going down the road with my lights on I can tell they are flickering as does my inside lights a bit, when I come to a stop I can tell they are flickering more while in gear if I go to park no flickering. Anyone ever had this problem? Or have an idea of what it is, I replaced the lights a year ago and they are all solid and properly lined up. It doesn't affect driving but it drives me nuts at night. Thanks for any help!

[fastTa]

Sounds like the voltage regulator inside of the alternator is going bad. In park it is idling at just enough higher RPM's to compensate for the voltage regulator malfunctioning.

[Jeff_in_Atl]

I had this problem in my Mustang and it was the alternator.

Cause in my case - large subwoofer amp without a power capacitor. Every time it would hit it would draw a current spike. The voltage regulator sensed it and would tell the alternator to put out more fast. It tells the alternator via 2 brushes riding on a armature. The brushes would arc to the armature burning it like a welder. It left little black pit marks in it. When it got enough of them it would quit working. I had to take the alternator apart and sand the armature to get the black pit marks off. Put it back together and it worked fine. I was doing this about once every 3 months.

My fix - buy a 1 farad capacitor to put on the subwoofer amp. The cap stored enough energy for the sub so the regulator didn't have to tell the alternator to put out more juice and burn the armature.

[crazycooter]

I have a 1000 watt amp and two 10's not sure if I need the cap. or not. Is the alt easy to take apart? and clean or is it best to replace it?

[Disifer]

With 1000 watts, most probably. You probably aren't pushing all of that to the speakers but when I had a 400w amp and 1 10" my lights would flicker a little bit.

[Jeff_in_Atl]

I have a 1000 watt amp and two 10's not sure if I need the cap. or not. Is the alt easy to take apart? and clean or is it best to replace it?

Oh yea. That's the cause. I've only had an old GM alternator apart before. I can't say how the newer ones are. I wouldn't hesitate to do it. You'll probably need a paper clip to hold the brushes in when putting it back together.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-rPydAx1...sp?g=725&avf=N

[KnightryderZ_SpoonZ]

You definitely need a cap. I'm running a 1600 watt amp and 2 10 inch 1800 watt subs and my lights dim and my volt meter swing with my music. I just don't have rthe cash for a good cap right at the moment.