ok here's my situtation. I have a brand new altenator and battery.(less than 1 week old.)I'll be driving and my cd player will get dim and cut off. Then my clock will start to fade and evetually the car wants to die. WTF is going on? My gauge cluster is currently out of the car. Would that have something to do with it? Blown fuse somewhere? Someone help!

 

it wouldnt be anything with the battery cause once you start the car you can remove the battery and it will still run..where did you buy the alternator? if you bought it from discount auto parts or pepboys, i'd get it checked out because my friend had the same problem once, we installed a brand new alternater from discount auto parts into his car and about a week later kis car kept dying. found out that the alternater he bought to replace his bad one was bad also. funny thing is that the replacement that they gave him when we went to return the alternator was also bad, it made some weird noises when we started up the car so we had to go back a 3rd time to acutally get a good working one.

 

make sure its everything is tight on there espically the ground wire

 

it would have to be the battery, what brand is it? old cars run off the ALT., fuel injected cars, i believe, live off the battery, the ALT just recharges the batt. take both to AutoZone & have them checked for free - my $ is on the battery.

 

check for corrosion in the alternator plug...

 

It sounds to me like the Alternator isn't properly charging the Battery. It can't be the Battery's fault either because it provided enough amperage to crank over the engine..

I'd recheck all the connections and make sure they're not corroded or loose. A quick little tug is what I'd give it..

But if you want to try and diagnose it.. You can fully charge the Battery and find yourself a VOM or Multimeter.. Put the Battery back in the vehicle and check it State of Charge.. It should be 12.6V or more considering it's a new Battery.. Next crank over the engine and check the Voltage at the Battery Terminals.. They should read about 13.6V to 14V or so.. If the Voltage just drops, your problem is the Alternator.. All you have to do then is figure out if it's the Alternator itself or it is the Alternator's connections..

Good Luck and Be Careful..

 

yeah before you check all this **** UNCONNECT the negitive batery terminal....i was disconencting and rconencting wires without it and wound up blowing a fuse....i guess theoretically you could get electircuted too....but i have a fired who touches both sides of the battery.....nothign happpens.

 

I'm going to have the battery and alternator checked today. I'm still thinking it may have something to do with the green plug on the alternator. Maybe one of those wires has a blown fuse that's not allowing the alternator to charge. I checked the alternator and battery last night with my multimeter and it was down to 9 volts and dropping while the car was running. So either the alternator isn't charging or one of those wires from the green plug is preventing the charge from getting to the battery. The main thing that sucks is that its 20 degrees outside and i have no garage and i have to deal with this bs.

 

No dont let the guys at autozone check it they are horrible. They checked mine told me I needed a new alternator. That was like 7 months ago. Took it somewhere else and they said it was fine. Autozone is a joke

 

I have fixed the problem. It wasn't the alternator or the battery. It was the black/yellow wire coming from the green plug on the alternator. it was grounding out and blowing a fuse. In turn not letting the alternator charge the battery. I replaced the fuse, fixed the wire and jumped the car. It's as good as new!