For the record, I drive a 2002 Protege ES

I was driving home the other day and suddenly my battery light on the dash went on. I began thinking what the hell, good thing I was only a few minutes from home.

I stop to get gas on the way, and when I turn my car back on, now the battery light AND the check engine light came on. As I got closer to my house, I dont know if I'm just paranoid but I began to smell a sort of, sweet smell. Maybe that was just me, I dont know. I havent drivin my car since.

I decided to run a quick test, started my car, turned on the highbeams and measured the voltage across the battery and came up with 11.6 Volts. Not good as I read that it should measure 14+ when the car is running with highbeams on.

I just replaced my battery 3 weeks ago as it was beginning to die on me so I assume the Alternator is toast? Is this a valid assumption and how much do you think this will hurt my wallet?

 

Is your CEL still on? If so, get it to a parts store like Auto Zone, and they can test to see what code it is throwing for free. You also could take it to a Mazda dealer, but they may charge just for the diagnostic if it is not covered under waranty. I have never touched the alternator in my car, so i have no idea how difficult they may be to remove, but if you can get it out you can take it to a parts store also and have it bench tested. I think I remember reading that there are no aftermarket alternators that will fit our cars, so if its bad you would have to get a stock replacement unit or have yours rebuilt. Last time I had an alternator rebuilt for my Blazer (about 4 years ago maybe), it cost less than $50 if I remember correctly. Good luck, I'm sure if there are anymore probs or questions someone on here would be able to give you more advice. There are some pretty helpful fellas that hang around here.

 

Yeah the Check Engine Light and the Battery Light both come on when I start my engine.
It takes a few minutes for the Battery one to come on

Now, a while ago I began to hear a... squeeking noise from one of my belts, after checking it out it appeared to be the small belt down below the Water Pump. Someone told me thats the Alternator Belt(?)
The belt didnt squeek all the time, and would often stop at higher RPMs.
I planned to change the belt ASAP but wasnt able to find the time to get it into a shop to do so. Could this possibly be a belt problem?

 

As long as your belt appears to be in good shape (not frayed, cracked, etc.), and there is plenty of tension, it should be fine. Again, the first thing I would do is go to a parts store and have them pull a code.

 

Isn't the ES 2.0 Alt rated at 80amps? I have a backup FD Alt (93' RX-7) rated at 100amps waiting to be dropped In.

 

Hey guys, good news! I fixed the problem. I poped open my hood this mornin to take a look at the alternator belt myself before taking it to a shop. It was then I noticed, I didnt have an alternator belt anymore...

What I did find was many "fragments" of the belt all over my engine compartment... hehe, anyways, I managed to scrounge up about 8 or 9 pieces of what used to be my belt, it looked like it had been put through a paper shredder.

Anyways, it appeared 1 of the pieces had managed to entangle itself with my water pump belt and the drive home after it musta snapped did some damage to that belt as well.

So in the end I just replaced both belts, did all the labor myself and took about an hour and a half to 2 hours. Which I thought was pretty good considering I've never done any sort of work like this on a vehicle before. The hard part was loosening both the pulleys as the bolts were pretty rusted and some were very very difficult to access (Had to jack up my car and go under the hood to get at one of them). That seemed to fix all the problems, the battery light didnt go off, nor did the CEL. I checked the voltage across the battery and measured 14 Volts with the car running. So everything worked out pretty well, and it only ended up costing me 50 bucks.

 

Did you remove the power steering actuator to get to the Alt?

 

Good deal