Last night i went to start up my 1990 camaro 305 and i turned the key all the way and it took maybe half a second up to a whole second for the starter to respond and start the car, this usually doesn't happen. that's not all though, after it started i turned on the headlights and the rpms dropped and the car almost died, then the little security light on the dash lit up, i'm thinking that it lit up because the car almost died and it lost power for a second. i think this has something to do with the rain, it started raining really heavy last night before i started the car.

then this morning i started it to drive home and it started but did the same thing when i tried to turn on the headlights so i just drove with the headlights off, but another thing i noticed was that the rpms didn't want to stay up, usually when i shift at about 2500 or 3000 the rpms don't drop lower than 1500 with the clutch depressed, but while i was driving the rpms dropped to maybe 800 rpms, the usual idle speed of the engine. it's never done this before, i did not notice any decrease in engine performance though. as i continued driving it started to drive like normal though, the rpms started hovering around where they normally do when i have the clutch depressed.


when i got home i turned on the headlights and the car acted like it normally does, i'm thinking the alternator is going bad, what about you guys?

could the alternator be getting wet? or is it just because it's so wet outside that it's affecting the charge?

thanks in advance.

 

Im gonna watch this thread because I have almost the same problem as you .... I have to hold the key foward for a good second or so before it turns over. I've checked everything over and I think I've pin pointed it down to the ignition switch. I had just recently changed out the ignition on my friends 91RS because he lost the keys but knew the ohms .. Anways I had never swapped ignitions before , and He let me use his car as a ginny pig. I did it and it worked great "his car not mine" ... but I noticed how sturdy his ignition is and my ignition is so LOOSE!! Its gotta be the switch.