My wife has a 2000 Isuzu Rodeo.
I am having problems with the lights on the dash flickering.
I have had the alternator tested but I was told it was fine. But........
there was not a "load" put on it, if you know what I mean. I was always told that you need to have the defrost on, full blast. You need to have the rear defrost on, headlights on, and you need to have your foot on the break.
None of that was ever done.
I was told by another mechanic that it idles too low, causing the voltage regulator to not kick in when it should.
Now it does idle low, at about 500 or 600 rpm but when the engine is cold and the rpm's are up, it still flickers.
The other day, I drove it to work and I work at night so this was easy to tell. When I started the car with the engine cold, everything was fine until I put my foot on the break, then they flickered a little.
Now I tried everything else...the defrost, headlights, rear defrost, etc. and they began to flicker pretty bad now, until I put my foot on the gas and brought the RPM's to about 1100 or 1200 rpm's then it stopped.
When I drive this, it is pretty embarrasing to pull up to a stop light and have the headlights, breaklights, etc flickering.
Do you think the alternator is junk, when at least the voltage regulator IN the alternator?