ok i think i know the problem but i wanna see what you guys think...

yesterday i was coming home when about a minute later my radio starts going on and off... so i stop at a stop light and turn off the car and turn it back on again... then it just makes some clicking noise. no engine turning over or anything.

so my buddy and i push it and try starting it up again.. barely turns then clicks again... so we call his dad and wait about 10 min. then i try starting again... starts fine.

so we start back down the road again and we get about 1/8 of a mile and it dies again. same thing, the gauges all turn off then the car dies about 5-10 seconds later.
so my buddies dad finally shows up and i try to start the car and nothing happens, just clicking agian. he puts on jumper cables and the second i try to start it up, it starts up like its a brand new battery. so we drive again this time and we get about 2-3 miles then the gauges turn back on again and i keep driving. then it starts to really bog out and i get some detonation. so i pull over and call a tow truck.

i was thnking it was either the alternator or the batter was shorting out cuz whats like what was happeneing with all my electrical, they would go on and off and on and off again then thte car would eventually die. any thoughts on what the problem is? me and my buddy put his moms battery in and it worked fine around his block but we didnt want to take it onto the streets in fear it would happen again, but we were draining as much power as possible and it worked fine.

please if you have any information that would help me it is greatly appreciated! thanks in advanced
-Nick-

 

could be your alternator going out... could also be wires shorting to ground or cross-shorting with one another... but if you used jumper cables and it started perfectly... then either it was good timing for the car to start or the jump helped in... in which case that means your alternator isnt charging your car... so when you drive it, you just drain the battery more and more

id run some tests on your alternator

 

It sounds like that to me too, when the alternator doesn't provide a sufficient amount of charge to the electrical system, it puts a considerable amount of stress on the battery. The likelyhood is that this has been going on for some time now, and you haven't noticed it until now because it's really bad. If you have to replace the alternator, replace the battery too... when one goes, usually the other goes with it. Rule of thumb.

 

i drove the car around w/ a new battery today and everything seems fine, is there a possibility it was just a bad battery, like it had a short?

 

the battery could have a dead plate or 2 in it

 

that same **** happened to me a while ago, I put my turn signal on and my car died, sometimes it just died itself. I got a new alternator and it worked fine.

 

Id get the alt tested just to be sure, otherwise you'll just keep draing batteries.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 4door_demon &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Id get the alt tested just to be sure, otherwise you'll just keep draing batteries.</TD></TR></TABLE>

And keep having to replace them too. Get the charging system tested by a shop... unless you have an AVR machine.

 

well... after replacing both the battery and the alternator... still same ****... car drains and drains and then dies... and what was the problem after all? THE ******* ALTERNATOR FUSE... so i payed 130 for a fuse...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Rubixcu7 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">well... after replacing both the battery and the alternator... still same ****... car drains and drains and then dies... and what was the problem after all? THE ******* ALTERNATOR FUSE... so i payed 130 for a fuse...</TD></TR></TABLE>

Whenever there is ANY kind of electrical problem, always check the fuses before doing anything else.

 

if you would have had the charging system tested they would have told you it was the fuse... because if it has a blown fuse then it wont charge... or at least some part wont function right...

 

and now... you should figure out why the fuse was blown or it could happen again