Car 2001 Mitsubishi Galant 4 cylinder:
I popped the fuse box cover off under the hood and there are 2 that show pictures of a battery…they arent actually labeled with words…one has the relay but the other is empty…is it possible that is the cause? I didnt take them out so I am not sure what happened to them. Also it doesnt say what kind of relay/fuse to put in it…if anyone can help or get the information it is missing relay K under the hood and there is a picture of a battery on the fuse cover. If you can tell me if that will fix my problem and what kind/amps to get that would be great. Would the parts store be able to help me if I just brought the fuse box cover in and told them I need that one?
What is the problem?
the battery is charging when in the car correctly. I put a fully charged battery in and it will run for about 10 minutes…when we try to restart the car it wont start. Do the same with another battery with the same results. We took that alternator out and had it tested at a local parts store along with a spare I had and they both tested fine. I have a small tester and it shows the battery is fine but it isnt “seeing” the alternator as being there.
Most fuse/relay boxes are generically produced to fit many of the model configurations within the brand.
At the factory, different accessory builds would then get the needed relay or fuse in the correct spot as the car is built.
If you’ve never removed any relays, they were probably never there.
Therfore, your owner’s manual will tell you more than the fuse box cover.
So, now let’s fix the car.
What precipitated the need to replace batteries ?
What were the symptoms as the problem first began ?
This is probably what you need.
Just buy the car or what?
Ok information to try and fix the problem. I bought the car race ready just needed a starter so we did that and it ran great with no issues. First night of warmups we pulled into the pits after 5 laps to a dead battery. It started with a jump so I was told to replace the alternator which I did but I brought the old one down to the parts store and found it tested good. We went out for opening night and had some speed issues and finished a few laps down. The second race the battery was dead when i pulled onto the starting line so we replaced the battery at the track with a spare I had but that one ended up being a little too big and ripped the negative terminal off the cable. When we got it reconnected it started up. The next day the battery was dead again. I used my little tester and it shows that the battteries are still good but its not “seeing” the alternator there. So basically it seems like this was an issue before I bought the car. The batteries are getting charged on a home charger and are taking the charge and they start the car up with no issue when we put them in the car the first time but if we let it run at idle for a few minutes and shut it off it wont restart. Any help would be appreciated as there is a race next Tuesday and I would like to FINALLY finish one this year and get the other drivers off my back. I am VERY bad with electrical issues but I am trying.
I’ll interpret what you’re saying is that the alternator is not putting anything back into the battery. That’s fine and good, but you also keep saying that the battery checks out fine as though there’s some threshold that, once you’re below, the chassis doesn’t “see” it.
I agree that the fusible link is a likely suspect in sending the power down the line. One should be able to use your VOM to see whether the alt is being seen or not. The surface charge of the batter quickly erodes down to 12.xV while the alternator should maintain 14.xV. This will be read at the battery.
That is, if you’re NOT seeing 14.xV at the battery, AND your alternator is producing 14.xV AT THE MAIN LUG, then the wire between the alt and the junction point (usually the starter) is open.
If the alternator lug is NOT producing 14.xV to ground …AND it checks out good on the bench, then you’re not getting some exciter circuit input. At this range of model year (I don’t know) it may be PCM controlled.
This is why you don’t start new threads on old topics. You’re probably wasting everyone’s time because they don’t know you pulled the entire dash cluster out of this “race” car. Did you re-install the exciter circuit for the alternator as someone already suggested?
I do not have the dash cluster to reinstall anything. I asked before how to do it and didnt get any help so I thought I would try again. I am not trying to waste anyones time just get some help with this problem. There are people who didnt post anything on my other thread that have posted on this one.
Just do as I suggested. You’ll see the main lug on the alt (the one with the BIG WIRE). If it’s not putting out 14.xVDC AND checks out good at the auto parts store bench, then you’ve got a bad wire between the PCM and the alternator. Also read voltages at any other wire connected to the alt. Unhook/unplug the smaller wire and read both the separated points. Is voltage detected at either of them? If not, then you can assume that the wire is supposed to have power to it …and does not.
Get (buy) the FSM and find out what pin/wire on the PCM is supposed to be connected to the alter (and where) and bypass the harness. This should produce the regulation for the alternator.