98 Rodeo Battery & Brake Light ON Just Alternator or Worse??? HELP Please

Got a 98 Rodeo 6 cyl with 44K miles. Battery and Brake light came on a few days ago. I parked it, went back the following day and checked with volt meter, 12.4 volts not running and 11.6 running. Looks like alternator to me. First price check for replacement at parts house is $198. What I did not like was the light on the dash that said BRAKE came on also. So I did a web search and thus far have found several references to shorted (to what I don't know) wireing harness and bad alternator giving the same symptom, battery and brake light on.

Not wanting to do the job twice due to lack of infomration. Has anyone else ran into this problem. In the olden days i would just replace the diode bank, if one diode or more were bad and the bearings and put the alternator back in of course replacing the belt. Now I'm concerned that i might have a wireing harness problem also and that it could eat the new alternator.

Thanks in advance for any help. noobie

Reply to
noobie
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snipped-for-privacy@a.new.one scribbled some garbage about a problem in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com: and Dman answered with his usually drivel in the following manner!

When my alternator went kaput last month I got the same lights that came on. HERE IS THE IMPORTANT INFO ABOUT THE 98 RODEO ALTERNATOR...They used 3 yes I said 3 for that years build of vehicles. YOU MUST call a dealer with your VIN so they can check and see when it was built and which alternator was installed. I know one is a 70 amp one is a 90 amp (mine) and the other I believe was a 60 amp (not sure on this last one). Anyways the 70 amp can be bought for $179-$199 but the 90 amp was $300, got lucky and NAPA carried it, some auto stores did not even have it available. The dealer wanted $450 and that was for part alone. HTH

Reply to
DMan

Do not replace the alternator without checking VIN against open recalls!! One of the many recalls for the early '98 production included replacing the alternator due to low wattage. This mainly affected vehicles driven in extreme conditions,i.e. nighttime driving with snow/cold in heavy traffic with high heater fan and rear defroster on (the engine would cut off from low battery voltage). Mileage and delivery date or number of owners do not matter on any recall campaign repair and it should be offered at no cost to you. If you don't want to call the dealer contact Isuzu Customer Relations @ 800-255-6727.

If the repair is not included in any campaign and the alternator is still testing bad, be sure to check the ground connection P-6 at the point of the battery tray directly to the rear of battery (looking from the front). The connection may appear tight but may have corrosion built up from a poor surface connection to the tray. Remove the screw with a 10mm socket and with sand paper clean the battery tray surface to metal. Check the star washer on the bolt for corrosion and replace if neccesary (Isuzu now uses a plated star washer and bolt but a clean new one will suffice). Replace the bolt but do not overtighten as the metal is fairly thin and will strip. This action alone fixes a lot of wierd light problems including some check engine lights.

Let us know what works for you.

DVLDOG ----- Original Message ----- From: Newsgroups: alt.autos.isuzu Sent: Sunday, February 29, 2004 11:22 AM Subject: 98 Rodeo Battery & Brake Light ON Just Alternator or Worse??? HELP Please

Reply to
Joe D

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