Finally wrapped up my 6r80 swap a week ago and car has been great to drive. Yesterday while driving I got the "check charging system" warning. Voltmeter showed 11.8v while running. Turned it off and made sure all my connections at battery, fuse box and alternator were tight. Also removed the big fuses and checked continuity, all good. Put it back together, start it up and message is gone and its charging at 14v. Go for a short drive and the message comes back on and it shows 11.x volts again. Started it this morning, message off and let it idle for about 5 min, no warning message so I took off towards work. got about 3 miles down the road and message is back on. Drove as quickly as I could, and a few blocks from work I lost power steering (takes a lot of juice to operate the EPS motor) and then the dash lights gave out but the car still ran. Made it to the parking lot and let out a sigh of relief. Anyways, are alternators a semi common failure here? or more common with high heat as the turbo up-pipe is not too far from the alternator...
