I have a 1995 Mazda Protege with 186,000 miles. Best car I've ever had. I recently had one of the fan belts replaced and since then have been experiencing some electrical problems. The first thing that I noticed was a wheezing noise coming from my center console. I hear it through the speakers of my car when they are on. I also have a portable dvd player that I put in the car for my kids (plugged into the lighter) and I could hear the wheezing coming from the dvd player. The wheezing gets higher pitched as I accelerate and lower when I decelerate. The other things that happens is when i turn on my blinker it will sputter and flash at random intervals. Usually this causes the headlights to flicker with it. This does not happen all the time but it is occuring more often. Sometimes when I brake, the whole car will act as if the power was pulled for a split second then turn back on.

I took it in to have the alternator checked and they assured me that it was pulling 14V no problem and that it should not be causing the problem. Could it be a fan belt that it too tight? I should mention that I did not have any problems with the new fan belt until I took my car back to tighten down the new belt since it was slipping after a week. Also, it seems like the more stuff that I have on in the car(ac, radio, dvd player, headlights) the worse the problem is. Please help.

 

It sounds as if you have a loose ground somewhere. Possibly a main ground. Start off at the battery and trace to see if any are loose or corroded. Look for the ground straps that jump between the body and engine also. I have found in the past when you get alternator whine that goes with engine speed and especially the electrical cutting off momentarily, a ground is the culprit. Also double check the positive battery terminals and fuse block terminals to make sure all are tight.

 

Is the car equipped with a factory amplifier for your stereo? You have to take the stereo out to see. If it does, check the ground wire, and the speaker wires, even in the door. If and wire is touching metal other than good grounding it will transfer all the sounds of the road through your stereo.