Hi, I'm new to the forum but would like to call on the collective expertise of the gearheads here.

I am trying to help my friend diagnose a problem with his 1995 Eclipse GS. There appears to be an overcharging issue with the alternator. When the car is run and the headlamps are used, they glow extremely brightly. The brights, when used, blow out after a few seconds. If the car is run for more than a few minutes, the battery begins to leak acid. He and his brother have tried replacing both the battery and alternator, with no success. My friend also tells me that the car has blown 3 computers. As far as he remembers (the car has just sat on their lot for months now), the car's electrical components function correctly when the car is not running. He also says that they have tried taking apart the car and checking the internal wiring (since his brother changed out the stereo and did the faster blinker modification) but have found nothing of interest.

Judging by this information, I suspect the car's voltage regulator is to blame. Unfortunately, I have no working knowledge of eclipses. Where is the voltage regulator found in these cars? Is it part of the alternator or controlled by the car? We're probably going to take off the alternator and battery and run all the ground and power cables to make sure there are no shorts, but I would like to avert this step if it really is the voltage regulator. Please let me know if anyone else has any ideas. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Jose

 

Try just buying a brand new alternator.... im pretty sure the voltage regulater is on it too.

 

Actually, as I mentioned earlier, both the alternator and battery have been replaced. The alternator has been replaced with new ones 3 times. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

 

In some eclipses, there is a 2-stage voltage regulation process. The alternators internal regulator passes a signal to the ECU, which then decides if the alternator is to be deactivated.