ground wires

voltage regulator or Alternator

Hi All
Yesterday my battery light and airbag light came on, the battery light flickered a few times then stayed on. Also it was raining and my wipers, while on intermittent, sped up to high speed for a few swipes and then slowed to normal low speed. I'm thinking my ground wire might be the culprit as I recently had to repair rotten backup light wires and found other chaffed wires I cleaned up. Can someone point me to the ground location and what i need to remove to get at it, also are there more than one wire to check? thanks, perhaps a thread already exists, I did some searching but was having trouble logging in on Safari.... Switched to firefox and well here i am...

Hey I was able to search and found locations of grounds, happy to have other insights if you've got any ) thanks

Check for bad/loose connections on fuse block on top of battery.there is also a three wire plug that can get corroded and cause problems.

Cleaned up the grounds under the battery and to the block, also under the windshield cowl, checked for loose or corroded connections. Still the battery light and airbag light remain on.

I did change a tail light and brake light earlier that day, could that be related? They are working fine, watched my wife pull out of the driveway this morning, all working as expected.

I read something about a crash sensor ground, but did not look into that.

How does one test the alternator? I did change the pulley about 120k miles a ago, that is not showing any signs of having an issue.

With light on does it mean I'm killing the battery?

Test the alternator with a voltmeter at the battery. You should see ~14V with the engine running.

This morning the battery stutterted before turning over, so definitely draining the battery. I'll test alternator tonight.

How do you test the voltage regulator vs the alternator, is there a way?

Sounds like you need a new alternator, and you probably have a low voltage DTC stored in the SRS module. A scan tool could confirm that.

I just tested at the battery and 9.5 v, also abs light has joined the fun....looks like I'll be pulling alternator, thanks. 186k on it.

Got it out, more power to you guys who do this on a regular basis, Took about an hour 10 to get it out. Tensioner boot is gone and all its juice has leaked out so i'll need a new one of those too! Will take the alternator to the local shop for assessment. Trust worthy shop. Thanks

I would only ever use a genuine Bosch reman unit in there. Unless you like doing it again and again. I wouldn't.

oilhammer said:

I would only ever use a genuine Bosch reman unit in there. Unless you like doing it again and again. I wouldn't.

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Agreed, it was all OEM Bosch components, the only way to go. $20 bucks more. The savings is in the labor ) Its back up and running Battery light and ABS light went out, I realize I'll need Vag to reset the airbag light. Thanks to all for the help. You guys are the best.