On my way home tonight my gauges stopped working and tach then when i turned off my headlights they worked again so i turned my headlights on and off to see how fast i was going home then i hit the highway then my car had a massive battery drain because then my car started to shake like it was going to die and wouldnt go anywhere and i hear a ticking sound under the hood like directly in front of me then it stops and when i tried to turn my highbeams on it made the ticking sound then i turned them off and when i get off to the side of the highway my car wouldnt start back up after i turned it off... what do you guys think could be the problem??? i also had my battery checked yesterday and they said it was running perfectly fine...

 

Why would you have your battery checked?

1: The alternator is supplying all of the vehicles power while it is running - so a massive "battery drain" is out of the question.

2: I don't think your alternator is putting out what it needs to.

Your voltage regulator in the alternator could be screwed. Do this, go to autozone and have them hook up a vat 40 to your car. Tell them to test for alternator output. Most likely thats the problem - assuming its power related. I'm damn sure the gauges and the headlights aren't using the same circuit..........

I don't necessarily believe the alternator is DEAD per se; however, like i said - the voltage regulator could be messed up or something.

If it were completely dead, the car would be running off the battery for its short life - and assuming its not a deep cell battery - it would be toasted........and if they said the battery is good - we ruled this out.


Here's what I think:

The voltage regulator is bad.
If the alternator is only charging at 13v when the battery already has 12.6+ - there will be no charge. The alternator is supposed to have between 13.9-15v charging. If the voltage is not higher than the battery's, then no charge will happen. This could definately explain your problem.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TheKingPin &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">If the alternator is only charging at 13v when the battery already has 12.6+ - there will be no charge. The alternator is supposed to have between 13.9-15v charging. If the voltage is not higher than the battery's, then no charge will happen. This could definately explain your problem. </TD></TR></TABLE>I agree. My civic had the exact same symptoms as your lude. I took it to autozone and had them run an alternator, battery, and starter test. They came back and said the alternator wasn't producing as much juice as it was supposed to. Once I got the altenator off, we took it inside and they spun it to find out that it was only putting out 9.3v. Have your Alternator tested, I'm almost positive you will find the problem real quick.

-Red