Think I might have a bad alternator on my wife's 2015 Tahoe.
Had a slight whining noise show up about a week ago. I couldn't find anything right off the bat and it didn't affect the drivability so I was gonna wait until this weekend to troubleshoot further. Today she sends me a picture of a "Battery Saver Active" message on the DIC with the batter gauge at the low marker of the normal range. When she got home, I went out and did some preliminary tests with my multimeter. Just testing the battery with the car off, it's right at 12V. Cranking the car up and then testing (which I've never done before but ChrisFix recommends) the voltage was below 12, around 11.2. According to his video, that indicates a bad alternator. I can get an alternator from Amazon delivered on Sunday, or I can pay twice as much and get one from the local auto store tomorrow. Can I wait it out or is this something that will leave her on the side of the road? The message didn't show up when I had it running so I'm hoping it's just slowly on it's way out and not completely dead.
![photo_2024-07-25 20.15.29.jpeg photo_2024-07-25 20.15.29.jpeg](https://www.tahoeyukonforum.com/data/attachments/428/428026-ed22a233137efe359d6314c12722fd78.jpg)
ChrisFix video:
Had a slight whining noise show up about a week ago. I couldn't find anything right off the bat and it didn't affect the drivability so I was gonna wait until this weekend to troubleshoot further. Today she sends me a picture of a "Battery Saver Active" message on the DIC with the batter gauge at the low marker of the normal range. When she got home, I went out and did some preliminary tests with my multimeter. Just testing the battery with the car off, it's right at 12V. Cranking the car up and then testing (which I've never done before but ChrisFix recommends) the voltage was below 12, around 11.2. According to his video, that indicates a bad alternator. I can get an alternator from Amazon delivered on Sunday, or I can pay twice as much and get one from the local auto store tomorrow. Can I wait it out or is this something that will leave her on the side of the road? The message didn't show up when I had it running so I'm hoping it's just slowly on it's way out and not completely dead.
![photo_2024-07-25 20.15.29.jpeg photo_2024-07-25 20.15.29.jpeg](https://www.tahoeyukonforum.com/data/attachments/428/428026-ed22a233137efe359d6314c12722fd78.jpg)
ChrisFix video: