Parking brake light and battery light on simultaneously

[Michael]

I noticed this last night and haven’t driven the car since since I’m thinking this might be an issue with the alternator.

2005 Dodge Stratus SXT 2.4L SOHC coupe with 120k miles and still has the stock alternator as far as I know.

I ran my Bluedriver scan tool on it and it came back without any codes. Sometimes the lights both flash together, or they’re just on. Revving the engine did shut them off one time but they came back on, and doing that subsequent times didn’t do anything. I don’t notice anything like headlight dimming yet, but the car really hasn’t been driven since this issue came up.

I don’t have the capability to test voltage or anything so the only fix I’ve done is cleaning the battery terminals which didn’t help.

The car has had some work done to it a month ago to prepare me for a cross country move by our longtime mechanic. New cam sensor, all new belts, new water pump, and a new crank sensor.

The battery is probably 3-4 years old as well.

My google-fu is suggesting a bad alternator across the board. What do you guys think?

Also, any idea on the estimated labor cost to change it out? It’s not the easiest part to reach.

Thanks!

Topic

[dan]

Have you checked your parking brake, my grandfather had that happen to his truck once, his parking break was on, and it of coarse illuminated his parking break light, but it was only enough to turn on the light.

As for the whole diagnosis part, in order to really diagnose electrical issues you need the ability to test the battery and alternator. You always start with the battery then work your way up, static voltage for a battery should be around 12.6V and shouldn’t drop below 9.6V during starting, and it’s connections should be tight and clean just as you stated you checked, the charging system should have a voltage of reading of 13.5 to 14.5 Volts with the engine running at the battery, lower than that and it’s possibly a bad alternator, higher than that and it’s possibly a bad regulator.

[Charlie Hofer]

If your battery is over 3 years old have it checked, might not be anything, but its a good thing to do, also, stratuses have a diagnostic dashboard, if you turn on your key to the on position or even to accessory and hold the trip reset for 3 minutes, you’ll notice the dashboard will go into self check mode, let it run and then see if the issue comes up. there’s another issue where a wire may have grounded out and melted to the same circuit as the brake light and its causing this issue. I have not had any alternator issues when it comes to light problems, in my experience its often the printed circuit board on the back of the instrument cluster that often separates and allows the contacts for neighboring lights to touch. It sounds like you have a scan tool, most scan tools have a function that can display vehicle voltage, this is as good as a multimeter. One last thing, check the wiring going into the back of the alternator make sure its tight and clean, then follow it to the fuse block and your checking for any hot or bare spots. Hope this helps.

[Michael]

In case anyone gets a similar problem, it was the alternator.

[Author]

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