Symptoms of a failing alternator?

[JD525IA]

Driving in this fine a.m., I noticed that all my dash lighting were sort of pulsating. It was not a lot, but I could definately tell that the level of the lighting on the dash and the console/radio was getting slightly brighter and dimmer at a rate of two cycles per second.

I haven't had any problems starting or anything, but could this be a sign of my alternator getting ready to crap out, or possibly the diode going?

The battery is 1.5 yrs. old and it has been 110 deg. F this week, so I know it is hard on the battery. I'll check the battery water level.

Opinions?

JD

[Tiger]

Measure voltage at idle. You can also take it to Autozone for free charging system test.

[tnt525i]

if you have the on board computet, you can do a test #9 and check the voltage, 13.6 to 14.6 is within range,,,, anything lower you may need a new voltage reg or alternator
hope this helps

[BobHarris]

My 93 518 did this. It turned out to be the regulator / rectifier unit (little black box on back of alternator). This was a replaceable unit on mine.

HTH

Bob