kody474

I bought my LS about 8 months ago and it has been a solid car up until the last week. I just recently put new HID bulbs in it and had to replace the fuse for the Low beam on the left side, everything was going smoothly until yesterday when I filled her up, turned it on and a “Headlight leveling” message showed up on my dash along with the battery light, headlights still worked fine and weren’t pointing up or down too far. Just figured a sensor may be messed up, but today i go to start it and those two lights along with my vsc and abs lights came on. A couple miles down the highway and radio goes out and dash lights dimmed. Unfortunately I believe it’s my alternator because I do have a power steering leak but if there are any other possible causes please let me know!

timmy0tool

iTrader: (7)

yes it does sound like a failing alternator and/or battery. did the battery light in the instrument cluster ever turn on as well?

kody474

Yes it did come on, took the battery to get tested and luckily that was the issue, all is well and fixed other than a pesky 02 sensor. Thankfully it wasn’t the alternator, but the power steering leak makes me nervous knowing that it could ruin the alternator, I believe it’s leaking from one of the o rings from the reservoir to the pump itself.

timmy0tool

iTrader: (7)

glad you were able to easily remedy your problem.

the o-ring is a very cheap part and easily replaced - a common issue with these cars.
in my 97 with over 170k miles, the original alternator was never replaced and i only swapped that o-ring around the 130k mark. the alternator was moist with fluid but never failed. so it really depends on how bad the leak is!

kody474

I’m not sure how to classify the speed the leak but I do have to top off my power steering(atf) about every week and a half. When I originally bought the car I believe the person I bought it from was using generic ps fluid so I wonder if that’s what can cause it to start leaking. It’s sitting at 145k rn and the alternator is definitely getting a bit of fluid on it but it doesn’t seem like it’s in bad shape, it just scared me the way it died as the lights went dim and I lost radio and accessory speed. But it runs strong and smooth now.