Hey everyone, longtime lurker here. I upgraded from my 2000 TL to a fresh '07 about a month ago. Car has been running like a dream but today when I got to work today I was sitting in the parking lot and my battery light came on. Didn't think too much of it but I shut the car off and cranked it up again, and everything seemed fine but the light came on after about a minute. Left work about 2 hours ago and the same light came on, I drove a couple miles down the street and it felt like I was losing power and as I turned at a stop sign my VSA light came on and I couldn't turn it off. I turned into the auto zone on that street and as I turned into the parking spot all the dash lights came on and the car shut off.

I sat in my car for about 30 minutes googling what it could be and everything pointed at the alternator until I started up the car. Left it on for 5 minutes, no battery light, did a few laps around the parking lot with my headlights on to make sure but the battery light never came back on. I drove about 10 miles home, with my hazards and headlights on and it drove like normal. Do alternators come back to life, could it have just had a "hiccup" or is there something else I should check?

A little bit of background info. My car does take a tad longer than my old car to start. The battery was replaced 5/18. I hardwired a dash cam to the cigarette lighter fuse the week I bought the car. There has been a weird belt/creaking noise that my mechanic said was the tensioner pulley.

 

Bud! google and the search function are your best friend! found this in 10 seconds. https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-p...coming-849823/ and also this! google

Check your battery cables(corrosion, tightness), check your serpentine belt, check your grounds, and prep yourself for some good old fashion reading + trial and error! This forum is amazing for it.

If it turns out to be a bad alternator, might I suggest going on rockauto and getting a denso reman. The remanned denso is the same part number and og one that comes in our vehicles.

 

OP, while you were sitting in front of AutoZone, why didn't you have them test your battery and alternator? Duh!!

 

Sorry forgot to update. And yes I tried google but for some odd reason I wasn't thinking right and only googled general information about what a battery light entails and symptoms of a failing alternator. Should've been more specific with my research

Ended up being a loose connector. When I was checking to see if the alternator belt was still intact I saw a connector on the alternator was showing a bit of green so I pressed it in. Didn't think much of it because it felt like only the rubber booth moved but I guess the connection was loose.

Should've been more specific but this was at 11PM.