check gauges and battery light on

[gtpwilson]

I recently bought a 1997 gtp and after driving it about 20 miles the check gauges light and batt light came on i noticed the car had a brand new delco/delhi alternator and battery its not charging are there any fuses /relays or volage regulators id be able to check??? im cluelesss ive never realy owned a gm Thanks

[Blown97]

New parts can be bad out of the box, so don't just erase that of your list of possible problems. My suggestion would be to first go to a place like Auto Zone and have them do a Battery and an Alternator test. They have a machine that they just wheel out to your car that tests both. And it's free.

If the battery checks out bad, there you go, just replace it. If during that test the Alternator tests bad then I would suggest bench testing it. This requires taking it off the vehicle and bringing it it to Auto Zone and having them use their bench tester to test it. If the alternator failed the test on the car but passed on the bench then you most likely have a cable/wiring issue. Being a northerner, cable and terminal corrosion is common. While checking your cables, look for tears or splits in the insulation, look for bulges in the cable and look for stiff spots in the cable. When flexing the cable it should be pretty flexible, stiff spots are caused by high heat usually cause by high resistance in the cable which caused it to heat up the insulation and become hard. High resistance can be caused by corroded cables or terminals.

Good luck!

[baker01gt]

i had the light come on too and i went to AZ so they could text it and they said i had a bad battery and and bad alternator. they said sometimes when an alternator goes bad it takes the battery with it. i replaced the alternator and the battery is still testing bad..
im not sure what to do considering the car still startes and drives.
i was told a bad battery can cause low idle and hard starting sometimes, and SOMETIMES my car is hard to start (takes a sec or 2 longer) and has been idling a little low for about a month or 2..
what to do??

[KeithGTP03]

It is your alternator. The battery light is actually the charging system light. I went through 3 auto zone alternators in 3 weeks. The 4th one finally worked. They dont come new, they are remanufactured.