This morning the car wouldnt start. The relay kept clicking but no start-up. I didnt have time to deal with it, took someone elses car and left. Then I thought, Id try to pushstart it. It started up, I went for a drive to charge the battery. But as the engine warmed up, and the idle rpms fell, the car couldnt keep itself powered in idle. The headlights would go out, and the engigne would almost stall. So I drove around reving the engine at red lights. Then I finally pulled over, and this time the lights didnt go out, and the engine didnt stall. Everything seemed fine. I got home, killed the motor. Armed the alarm, and the alarm barely squeeked the armed signal. I though, man that battery's gonna be dead by tomorow.

So is my battery toast? Or maybe its a bad connection somewhere? Like dirty terminals, or a bad contact? What should I try before buying a new battery?

 

Start by cleaning the battery terminals and connections, also check for a solid clean connection where the negative battery cable connects to the body of the car. If you have a volt meter, see if the battery is putting out about 13 volts when the engine is off. Then turn on the headlights and see if the voltage drops a lot, like to 8 or 9 volts. If so you probably have a bad cell or two in the battery, and have to replace it.

Also, the positive battery terminal has a large wire that goes to the starter, and usually a smaller wire or two that power everything except the starter. Make sure the small wires are not broken or corroded at the terminal.

 

 

I think you may have a bad alternator.

 

I second the bad alternator theory. It shouldn't take a shop more than five minutes to diagnose. You may need a battery as well because if the alternator dies the accessories all run off the battery and it can deplete the battery past the point of a recharge if it goes on long enough

 

have u tried to jump it? if it does, the alternator is good...


if u can get it there...

 

word... shops aren't supposed to advice people to drive in to test an alternator. safest way is to take the alternator off and have it bench tested.

 

I've had a similar problem with my car, it came to be the distributor.

 

your problem is not similar to this. i dotn see how a distributor could die out a battery and not charge the battery to make the battery dead again the next morning.

maybe the distributor made your car die at idle if you didnt give it gas or something..but you could restart the car when it died... OP cant restart his car due to the battery.

Op has a charging/battery issue not a spark issue

 

a good way to test the alternator is start the car, then pull off the positive battery terminal connection, if the car keeps running the alternator is good, if the car dies, your alternator is dead.

 

I know this is commonly done, but you risk damaging the electrical system doing this test.

 

Another way to test the alternator: get a cheapo volt meter. Check voltage across the battery terminals with everything turned off; it should be between 12 and 14 volts. Then check with the engine at a fast idle or have someone rev it just a little. Voltage will probaby be between 14 and 16, higher than when the engine is off, meaning the alternator is now feeding some current into the battery to charge it.

 

missing two factors... load and amperage.

 

Right. The voltage check is very basic but probably adequate in most cases. That is, if you DON'T get the right voltages you KNOW something is wrong. If you DO get the right voltages there might still be something wrong with the alternator, but probably not.