Hey Guys,

looking for some help / guidance here, I’ve been having some electrical / charging issues for months now.

A few months ago the passenger side coolant hose popped off after being installed incorrectly on a drive and sprayed coolant all over the alternator, 2 days later I got the dreaded red battery light. I purchased a reman alternator from FCP Euro and installed it a few weeks later, car ran great for a few weeks and the red battery light returned.

I went back under the vehicle and realized I didn’t seat and bolt the ground on the back of the alternator all the way down correctly, did this and threw in a freshly charged battery and away I went, I was good for about 2 weeks and then driving on the a highway the car flickered, I lost all electronics and the car turned off and turned back on just as fast as it turned off, nearly **** my pants.

Get the car home, take the battery out and charge it up and throw it back in and turn the UB/IB menu and go for a drive, over the course of the next few weeks the car would slowly drain and the Amp would go from -30 to +30 which doesn’t seem right, well last night I got caught with my pants down about 35 mins from home and the car flickered 3 or 4 times on the return home with my wife and child in the car, where I decided to pull into a hospital parking lot and disconnect the IBS on the negative terminal as I know this takes the “thinking” out of the equation and should constantly give 14v, idled in the parking lot for 20 mins without any flicks and took some back roads until the last part of the highway where I needed to cross a bridge to come home, proceeded to drive the car the remaining 20 mins home without an electrical flick or issue.

I can’t for the life of me find the problem that’s causing this, could this be just as simple as replacing IBS Sensor?

 

One of the electrical issues tracked down on my car was due to the voltage regulator not being securely bolted to the alternator, creating an intermittent loss of charge and/or power. It was a pain to track down, I’d open the cover on your reman alt and make sure the three screws are correctly tightened down. The IBS is unlikely to be bad (it wouldn’t cause these problems anyway) and unplugging it, although a temporary band-aid, should have no long term effects. I’ve had mine disconnected for years. Good luck, electrical gremlins are the absolute worst.

 

The IBS is responsible for monitoring and managing the battery's state of charge and health. If it's malfunctioning, it could lead to improper charging and erratic behavior. Replacing the IBS might be a reasonable step if you suspect it's causing the issues.

 

this sounds very similar to what I’m experiencing, with the IBS sensor unplugged i pretty much maintain 14v with slight dips to 13v but never below 13, only ****ty thing is can’t monitor the Amp with it unplugged lol, I haven’t had the car turn off or flick power cycle mid drive but it’s only been 1 day and I recharged the battery to full.

I’ll get under and see if I can check the screws on the voltage regular this afternoon as a starting point if that doesn’t work, I guess I’ll be working backwards from the alternator checking the ground points.

 

not really sure if it’s the IBS sensor or not, it’s only been 1 day with the IBS sensor unplugged and haven’t had an issue, the volts have moved from 14v to 13v occasionally through around town driving but I haven’t flickered or power cycled.