So on my way home from running some errands I noticed my idle was running low, kind lopey/rough and my water temp. gauge was showing lower than normal temps (maybe about 2/3 the way to the middle). As I got closer to my house, the idle got worse, throttle response decreased and the car was smelling of unburned fuel pretty bad. I managed to pull into my garage and the car died. Tried to start...clickikikikikikk. I'm guessing the alternator **** the bed and I was running on battery. Sound right? If so, would it be right that running on the battery/lower voltage would cause the temp gauge to show a reduced reading because of the reduced voltage in the system? I remember on my 99 I was messing with the alternator and forgot to hook it up properly before heading out and having a similar experience...but I'm not 100% sure. If this **** keeps up....I won't be far away from a part out/return to stock thread.

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Yeah def sounds like an alt/no charging situation. Doesn't the Hydra switch on the battery light in such cases?

I would have thought so too, but it did not.

just remove that **** and get it tested, thats sucks tho. Didnt notice the lights dimmed, or was this during the day?

Evening/dusk. Did have my lights on, but HIDs don't dim before dying. Not going to bother testing, just replace both alt. and batt. since I'll be in there. Both are original from 2002....not really surprised that it might be time for replacement.

when my alternator died, i experienced similar **** when trying to start the car. but my idle was fine and my water temp gauge still functioned.
good luck.

When my alt went, I had bad idle and my gauges (particularly the tach) were all jumpy.

I thought the same thing happened to me... somehow the alternator got unplugged...I plugged it back in, boosted car and I'm still driving...

Just something to check.

130,000 miles on my oem alternator from '93 and still going strong. Part out for a dead altenator? A piece that still would have failed without the turbo?

It's that it's one damn thing after another lately. But when I think about it, it goes for any car and there is nothing that I can get that is equally as fast for a decent price and will be more reliable than a Miata.

Sheesh, an alternator is about 100 bucks, and should take less than an hour to replace. Be glad you're not working on a BMW; it takes almost an hour to get the damn shrouds off the engine.

Right, but to play devil's advocate a little here, it really has been one thing after another. It's some little piece or part every few weeks and you have to remember that this is a daily driver that has to get Mike to work every day. It's spent month's in the garage because of a full engine replacement, turbo died, squeaky this, blown that. Clutch line just blew last weekend and we had to run out for parts and there went multiple hours replacing it. Car has died in the driveway twice in just the past week. There have been quite a few days that I've had to work from home (I'm so lucky that I can) so Mike can take my car to work. It's usually little stuff though, things that would always happen on a car, just very inconvenient.

But on the other hand, first thing I said last night was that his alternator lasted him longer than I've ever had one last. Even killed one at an epic 14K on one of my past cars. I also said that he would not be happy with other cars, I really can't see him truly enjoying driving anything else (within reason)

The solution... buy a daily driver 3rd car. I'm passively on the lookout for something since we've talked about it many times but I think it may be something we seriously need to pursue.

I always have to remind him that you have to pay to play (through time and money). You want a fast cars with a lot of mods? Be ready to do a lot of tweaking, maintaining and prevention. If you're willing to do it, fine by me, but you have to be able to get to work every day.

Posting deleted. What was it? (and why don't people ever copy and paste CL ads since they are so prone to being deleted?)

Older Camry. Dime a dozen, and pretty safe bet if all you want is reliable transportation.

But boring as hell, so keep the Miata for your sanity.

Actually, that specific ad doesn't matter. Pick a random mid-90's Japanese sedan for $1000.

My alternator died after I went to the track for the first time. Battery light came on right away.

As far as I know in NAs the battery light will come on simply if the voltage is below certain value (12.8? dunno). It's a really dumb circuit.

NB is probably different, I imagine Mazda revamped the circuit once they weren't internally regulated.

Mike, this is actually what I did, and is why my car is a track ****. If it breaks, it sits around until I can afford to install the correct, upgraded part. Either because of money or time.

Picked up the new alty...used with 7kmi for $50 with a 12mo warranty.

Well, I'm surprised that I had another mostly drama free parts swapping. Got the alty swapped in under 40min from start to finish...even taking time to wipe down some things under the engine. The only part that went wrong was that I funked the connector that plugs into the alty. So I'll need to see if I can get another one tomorrow and splice it in. I'm not worried about that part, easy ****.

Hopefully it'll crank up and run with little problem tomorrow and that I didn't toast my battery.