My daughter drove the car to/from school and mentioned the power steering had gotten weak at about halfway through, each way. I figured it might have a PS pump leak (not realizing 2nd Gens have EPAS and our ‘03 was hydraulic) and let her take the car last night without checking it out… Face, meet palm.
On her way home last night, she said the battery light came on (I’m immediately thinking alternator), the added that “some light with letters like V—T—something” come on. “VCT?” Yep, she confirmed that was it, then also mentioned the headlights went out just before she turned into the driveway, and that the steering was “really tough”.
I was still thinking of a low-battery and/or alternator failure, since the car refused to start—or even crank—and since I’d previously replaced the alternator on my sister’s ‘03 Vibe after an under voltage problem. To my surprise, the constant-positive (output) lead at the alternator was reading 19+ volts. I verified the same at the battery, and it started to come together a bit once I realized there was power at the headlights (when turned on) but the *LED* bulbs I had installed last fall had fried from the overvoltage.
I unplugged the battery to hopefully avoid any further damage, but left it at this state as the temperature outside was dropping quickly and my heated garage is full of a torn-down Kubota and an in-progress four-wheeler carb rebuild.
With this chain of events in mind, how screwed do you think I am here? I’m assuming now that the voltage regulator in the alternator gave up, but I’m open to other insights. Also, how tolerable do you think the ECU, VCT, power steering, etc. systems are to this excessively high voltage?
Danno in SD
Username: elliedan