Well, my car turned 270,000 miles last night, and it also decided to stop charging the battery. It's an interesting problem because earlier in the day all of the instrument warning lamps were flickering slightly at idle, and the battery light was glowing ever so slightly. On my way home from car54's house, the antilock lamp came on, indicating that the battery charge had dropped below 10 volts. The headlamps were also noticibly dimmer. Periodically the antilock lamp would turn back off and the headlamps would get brighter, indicating that the alternator was once again charging. By the time I got home, the antilock lamp had come on and gone back off about 4 times (on for about 5 minutes each time). Also interesting is that none of my warning lamps come on when the ignition switch it turned to the on position (only the SRS and glowplug lamps come on).

My question is this... is this likely a failing alternator, voltage regulator, or possibly an ignition switch problem? I think I am going to test the output of the alternator later tonight, and any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Perhaps all it needs are new brushes (I hope).

Thanks so much,
Lawson