Voltage Regulator? Diagnose Me.

[The Architect]

Alright so this has happened 3 times so far.

Ill be driving and randomly the Headunit/AEM Volt gauge will turn off and the Dash P/S Light will come on for a few seconds and then turn back off/on.

Sorta scary, also I've noticed that the voltage will just seemingly randomly shoot up to the high 17's low 18's until I turn off the car and restart it.

Today however when trying to leaving a job site for work the car would turn on and everything but the P/S Light on the dash came on, the car would not shift out of park, the Voltage gauge showed nothing (not even 0volts) and the Head unit would not turn on, I removed the positive lead on the battery for a few seconds and reattached it and this fixed the problem...for now.


Thoughts?

[Vinceb]

-voltage regulator on the alternator is bad / going bad
-battery is bad / going bad
-large draw of power from the stereo system created a dip in power resulting in a power spike when the alternator caught back up to it and possibly damaging the ECU.
-grounding issues?

whats the normal voltage of the battery with everything off?
whats the charging voltage of the battery with the car running (stereo off)
whats the charging voltage of the battery with everything on (stereo, a/c, lights, etc)

those are my thoughts, let me know what you or anybody else thinks, hope you can figure it out.

[BLH]

Bad connection on the battery posts and got partially cleaned up when you removed and reconnected the battery.