Got my new IROC-Z yesterday, and drove the 330 miles home. Car acted fine the whole way... nice oil and volts(14.5 most of the way) temp a little low, but its like 2 degrees outside. After dinner at Ruby Tuesday's, leaving the lot with the lights on my voltage gadge was having a fit. It would pull down low... lights dimming, then jump up, lights back up, lugs motor (at idle) and do this again and again. Only at lower engine rpms, mainly idle and under 1500rpm, and more so when lightly accelerating, and with heat on. Whats up here? Voltage regulator? The alt looks new, belts not slipping. I also noticed an occasional studder. It will do it when lugging around 1000rpm in OD, and it will also some times do it when pulling hard through the power. Seems like electrical... happens very briefly, and goes away, not gets worese as the revs climb. Tried this a few times... both in second, and thrid. (No way in first... can't do much WOT there... it really goes!) Could this also be related to my voltage problem, or is the more likely plug wires. (Thats what it feels like, plug wires) Any ideas on whats going on here. It seems like the alt... to me anyways... I hope you guys can set me straight. Thanks in advance.

After taking my dad out for a ride tonight, he seems to think its a bad cell in the battery. Possibility?

i saw that car for sale on ebay. nice score...


sounds like an alternator to me. i remember a while back my car had similar symptmes to what you describe. changed the alt and everything was ok.

Yeah... it is quite a nice ride... 104k, fresh paint, and the full IROC 5.7 package... $3500 wasn't too bad. Gotta adjust the windows, get new gas shocks for the hood and rear gate, and take care of the stutter and electical fritzing, and she should be all set. I'm a little concerned now with the stutter, I was thinking plug wires, but they look fairly new. They are only 7mm, could this be part of the problem? They probably arn't more than 18 months old. Popped the caps on the battery to check water, every cell was topped off. There were a few (very little, very few) silvery particals in the battery. Any more idea's anybody?

I had a problem once where all my guages started acting crazy, my speedo would jump and my lights would dim suddenly. Turned out to be a broken ground wire from the firewall to the motor.

It sure sounds like a charging system problem. Investigate that first and see it takes care of your other problem. Electricity can be a very strange creature sometimes!!

That, of course, is AFTER you perform all other required maintenance, right?

When you first buy a used car the first thing you need to do is change sparkplugs, wires, cap, roter button, fuel filter, run some lucis fuel treatment. in the gas tank, and check the ingntion system.

But of course! A full tune up (Filters, Cap, rotor, wires, plugs) is in the works, but I gotta get this charging prob taken care of ASAP. I don't want to burn anything up. Thanks for the input guys, I'll post back when I find out whats up. :rockon: