A couple of weeks ago my aircon stopped working, repeatedly blowing fuses. Took it to a local Subaru dealer, after some time and a chunk of cash they diagnosed it as the aircon compressor (currently on order for replacement)

However a couple of days later I then broke down with what seemed to be a very poorly car at first but turned out to simply be a flat battery. The recovery guy suggested the alternator simply wasn't charging the battery. Since the garage had been looking over electrics I took it back to them to check but they claim the alternator simply happens to have gone wrong around the same time.

Not feeling like shelling out £420 odd quid for a new alternator I got a second hand one from Grade A Subaru but unfortunately after fitting I seem to be suffering exactly the same problem.

Other symptoms showing up are that the Battery charge light (whatever you call it) never comes on. The ABS light comes on randomly for some trips and I'm seeing ECU error code 24.

Does anyone know either

A) how I can test the if the alternator is working without reading volatge across the battery (since I'm suspicious of the connections out the alternator) i.e should I be able to read a 14v type reading across terminals on the alternator?

or

B) exactly where the connections from the alternator go to so I can check the circuits. There's a 2 pin socket into the alternator which seems to happily make positive and negative links, but also another set of wires bolted to the top, where should these go to since I can't get a circuit anywhere

or

C) are my electrics just hosed. If so anyone got a good idea of a car electrics place around Guildford that I can go to (not too convinced about the ability of the local Subaru garage)

This is all on an MY98 Terzo (in case the username didn't make it obvious)

Blake.

Still trying to diagnose this, one question I could really do with someone answering if possible.

On an MY98 can anyone check if they get a continuity circuit between the point on the top of the alternator (where two spade end wires are bolted on) to the positive terminal of the battery.

I'm pretty sure from the wiring diagrams I've seen this should produce a circuit, but I'm not seeing a circuit (instead I see a voltage across the two points).
If anyone can guarantee there is meant to be a circuit across here it'll tell me I definitely have a wiring problem (not an alternator problem)

Thanks

Blake.

Hi mate

I should be off work tomorrow so I will have a quick check on mine

Thanks, that would be really helpful.

Blake.