Alternator light blinks amp check engine 14

Argh ... day before I leave for the track event in Savannah and I get another problem :-(

Drove the car to work a few mins ago and on the highway got, in the following order:

- alternator light flashes on and off intermittently
- check engine 1-4 comes on and off intermittently.

The pattern repeated several times. Checked the codes when I got to the parking lot ... getting 1-2-1-1 which is "lambda regulation". Watched the codes for 3 cycles and it was always the same. Should have checked the other side as well, but didn't think of it at the time.

So I'm very confused. I can't see how the alternator light and the lambda error can be related, but they seem to be very related from the way the error lights on the dash are coming on and going off. Remember that last week I had a different lambda problem (code 1-1-1-4 "lambda sensor"). I'm tempted to just replace the O2 sensor, but I'm not confident that will really address the issue. What should I do?

Oh, with limited tools in the parking lot I did just check to see that the alternator was spinning and I reseated the electrical harness plug at the driver side frame rail (a past finicky component but hasn't given me trouble in a long time).

Hi Lou,

sorry to hear you're having more glitches.

The Alternators are a common failure on 348's and cause symptoms exactly like you describe.

Any quality Alt rebuild shop should be able to repair your old one properly.

The problems with the Alt. are most often traced to Regulator Failure caused by worn brushes and/or oil inside from a leaking cam seal.

My instincts tell me the Alt is the most likely problem, but some early cars did have poor O2 sensor grounding issues that required an additional external ground wire to the O2 sensor outer housing.

HTH's

Regards, JRV

Thanks. My alternator is 4 or 5 years old but is the upgraded Nipponedenso unit. It probably did get soaked with oil from cam seal leakage before my 30k service (last month). I'll focus my attention there first ... thanks.

BTW, thanks for remembering the car - rather silly of me to forget to mention it was a Mondial-t :-)

Just an update. Found a loose connection and the problem has not reoccurred.

Lou,

a loose connection in the Alternator circuit or O2 sensor circuit?

it might be helpful to know for future reference.

Regards, JRV

sorry for the delay in responding. I ran the car at Roebling Road Raceway (near Savannah) Fri and Saturday with no more alternator light issues. Just returned home late last nite. There were really two loose wires so I don't know which one REALLY addressed the issue:

1. The clip-in connector at the Alternator (has 3 or 4 small wires going into it) was not seated all the way in.

2. The harness screw-in connector on the driver-side frame rail at the top of the engine bay was also a bit loose. This one gives me trouble about twice a year so it is probably time to replace it with a stronger connector.

I did have a few other issues at the track, but they didn't take away from track time except perhaps 10 minutes in one session. On the second day after lunch, all of a sudden the car woke from its 1hr rest (after I even added some more oil) sputtering and missing a bit. Hoping it would go away as the car warmed up, we went a few laps on track. Unfortunately the Mondial T was very noticably down on power and the exhaust had a very boomy sound rather than the normal song. Back in the pits I started pressing connectors together to make sure everything was tight ... eventually got to the air flow meter connection on the 5-8 bank, and as soon as I touched it the RPMs rose sharply and then settled into limp-home mode. Shut off the engine, cleaned and reseated the connector, and started her back up - WOW all the sputtering went away. Went back on track and ran beautifully the rest of the day :-)