my battery light has been flickering on/off for the first 5-10 minutes that i drive for the past few days.

we tested the battery, it gets 14-15v when the light is off and when it flickers on the voltage drops to around 11-12v. when the car is off it gets a constant 12v. I recently installed an amp/subs about 3-4 weeks ago, but this didnt start happening with the battery light til about 2 days ago. the battery light condition happens with the subs/amp plugged in and not plugged in.

any ideas? could it be a voltage regulator going bad? the battery and alternator were both replaced in october '06

 

Well considering it only happens when the subs are plugged in i would say that there is a wirirng problem that is pulling power from the batt when the car is off would be my guess from what your saying.

 

the battery light will flicker on and off even WITHOUT the subs hooked up. took the battery to autozone and had it tested, said it was all good.

 

get the alt. checked. take if off and have them bench test it (thats the most reliable test). if it is the volt. reg. you should get a new alt. under warranty, unless you bought a cheap one with no warranty. the voltage reg. is part of the alt. its on the back of it. its not worth replacing just that part, plus if you do have warranty you will void it if you try to fix the voltage reg on its own.

 

alright, thats what i was sorta thinking. will have to do that this weekend when i have time to take the alternator off and have a second car to drive. gotta dig out the receipt too

thanks for the tips