Ive recently noticed my Cobra slightly surging at idle. It will idle at about 800rpms then jump to 1000rpms and stay for about 5 seconds then drop back down. Sometimes when it drops back down it will go down to like 600rpms for a second or two. Also the lights are flickering, more so when the car is cold. I am wondering if it could be the battery or alternator.
Cobra acting weird
- Thread starter 99stanger
- Start date
What lights are flickering? Alt and/or wiring short.
Like my dash lights, if I turn on the dome light it will do it too. My BAP also makes a chirping noise as well. I just changed my alternator last fall.
You have a short in the wiring harness. It needs to be traced - by a pro if you are not acquainted with electricity and electronics.
Is it just the dash panel? There is a fix for JUST that.
No, its my dash, dome light, pillar guages. Its a VERY faint flicker though... and seems to even more faint to almost gone when the car warms up.
The surging went away for the early part of today, then driving home from work I noticed when I pulled up it was still there. Ive noticed the slight flicker in the lights since I took it out from winter storage.
Have you put a volt meter on it yet and tested voltage at various RPMs or data logged voltage?:shrug:
Havent had a chance, Ive been working... but been checking back here every few for ideas. I have today off so hopefully I can get to the bottom of this today. I scanned the car last night... and did find a code for "I/C pump failure", good thing I found that!
what mods do you have done? I have seen something similar on a friends car. It ended up being the alternator starting to go out. Also, check your battery grounds. Hope you figure it out.
Im wondering if it is the alternator, which I did replace last October. Voltage is checking out good though. The surging doesn't happen all the time and its hardly noticeable, for example it may "surge" from 750rpms to say 950-1000 and then drop down to like 500-600rpms and then immediatly go back to 750. I checked for some bad grounds, I also checked the BAP wiring and found a slit type mark in the protective wire covering. So I cut and reconnected the wire good. So far today there has been no surging and I can't notice any flickering in the daylight. I wonder if maybe the bap and hid heads/fogs are too much for the battery/alt? I have no aftermarket sound system, Mods are in my sig... I recently installed a borla catback.
Also get a free load test done on that battery if you can.
A battery that is in the beginning stages of failure can put extra demand on an alternator, and we know our alternators are spun pretty hard and have an inherent heat issue.
Add higher amp demand than OE levels and there is the possibility for problems.
A battery that is in the beginning stages of failure can put extra demand on an alternator, and we know our alternators are spun pretty hard and have an inherent heat issue.
Add higher amp demand than OE levels and there is the possibility for problems.
I got to say after messing around with the BAP it has been fine, maybe that cut in the wire was causing it to short out? I will defintly keep an eye on it though.
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