Power Issues

sha4000 · December 21, 2005

this is the first time ive had this problem, when i have my headlights,front and rear defrost plus my seat warmers on my radio will just shut off and start clicking like its trying to come back on but theres not enough power. nothing else is affected but the radio so i dont know if i n eed a stronger batery or what. i checked the alternator and it checked out ok so what do you guys/gals think?

alsalih · December 22, 2005

sha4000, does this only occur when your at idle? It’s clearly a low power supply issue which could occur at idle if your battery is old (over 2 years) and/or if your alternator is intermittently working (which is what happened with mine). The only way that I was able to find my intermittently faulty alternator (occurred at 108K miles) was because I had a lighter plug in alternator checking device which indicated a weak alternator output (simply verifies if your alternator is outputting the required +14V or not).

91ls400 · December 22, 2005

I had a similar problem, it was just poor connections with the battery, make sure eveything is clean and tight.

sha4000 · December 22, 2005

i just purchased the battery from autozone earlier this year and i did check my alternator output which was over 14v, ill recheck my connections

SKperformance · December 22, 2005

the radio cuts out when voltage drops below a certain level

so what causes voltage drops

bad connections

bad battery

bad alternator

uakicker · December 22, 2005

I just had this issue with a 1990 LS. Started out just as you described, but graduated to much more. The dash lit up like a Christmas tree, with multiple warning lights. That lasted a little while and then eventually the car shut down. Ended up being the alternator and once replaced, everything's fine. There does appear to be an issue with power steering fluid shorting out LS alternators. Check for leaks! Best of luck to you.

Mike