This time it seems to be the alternator. I was driving along and starting getting hesitation when accelerating, then my tachometer dropped to 0, the speedometer followed shortly after. Headlights started fading, so I turned them off, and manage to turn around and make it back up the street to my friend's house. Car won't even turn over now.

This is a sign of the alternator not working and the car running off of the battery, then the battery dying since it's not getting charge by the alternator. Am I correct?

 

well if your alt quit then your car would run off of the battery and die fairly quickly

check all of your connections and get the alt and battery tested. usually when the alt goes bad it will fry the battery

 

Was your battery light on?

 

LOL. sorry man, but htat has happened to me a few times. your alternator probably died day before. i ran my car for a whole day with a dead alternator before the battery died. id pull it and check it.

 

Check out your alternator brush assembly. You can do it yourself easily.

 

Well, it's not the alternator. I got the car started again later on, and it ran fine for about half my trip home, then the electricals went nuts. Turns out it was a short in my wiring harness (I believe) and it managed to drain the power from my alternator and battery in a matter of minutes. I pulled off on the side of the road, fiddled under the hood, and fixed the short, but when I tried to start the car...

'clickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclickclic kclickclickclickclickclickclick'

Battery dead. So I put the ignition to on, let it roll backwards, and threw it into reverse, and the car started. I made it the rest of the way home without incident, and the alternator recharged the battery so it can start just fine under it's own power now. Obviously the alternator is good.