# Power problems



## royson345 (Jan 14, 2005)

I was driving home last night and my dash light and headlights started to go dim. My headunit has a voltage meter for the batt so i click it on and it was reading 11 volts. then it started to fall and my car finally shut off. I managed to park it at a church. i applied a jump pack to it and it started but as soon as I took the jump pack off it died again.

Could it be my alternator or a dead batt?

Thanks for any help.


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## DRUNKHORSE (Mar 6, 2005)

its your alternator, without a doubt. If u were able to turn the car on, im guessing you left the jumper on for a min or 2, then u took it off the car shouldve stayed on if the battery is ok. then again, it mostlikely got discharged from the night before. What you can do is buy a multimeter(under$20) or if you have one check the battery. Mostlikely its your alternator tho, make sure to have your battery re-charged when you change the alty.


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## Matt93SE (Sep 17, 2003)

his head unit has a volt meter in it.. that's all he needs to check the voltage of the battery.


sounds like your alternator has quit- as he said. check the belt first and make sure it didn't shred itself and come off. if that's not it, then you get to replace the alternator or look for a wiring problem between the alt and batt.

any dummy lights on the dash? usually when the alternator goes out, the brake and abttery light both come on.

figure out what the deal is with the alternator and have a parts place charge your battery for you (or pull it out and hook it up to another car parallel to their battery and leave it running for 20 min or so to charge it up.)


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## alexnds (Oct 1, 2005)

*bad alternator*



royson345 said:


> I was driving home last night and my dash light and headlights started to go dim. My headunit has a voltage meter for the batt so i click it on and it was reading 11 volts. then it started to fall and my car finally shut off. I managed to park it at a church. i applied a jump pack to it and it started but as soon as I took the jump pack off it died again.
> 
> Could it be my alternator or a dead batt?
> 
> Thanks for any help.


the guys here have given you solid advice. I just wanted to add one more bit of very simple info. It's an old trick, but still works. To see if it's the battery or the alternator, for sure, here's what you do: start the car and before starting it, loosen up the red (+) clamp that's attached to the top of the battery terminal. Once the car is running, take the positive red wire off the battery post. If the car still keeps running, it's running off the alternator. If it stops, it was running from the battery and it eventually died because it never got fully re-charged without the alternator re-charging it. Take a volt meter and measure the battery. It's probably closer to 13.8 volts than 12 volts if it's fresh. Once you get the alternator situation under control, which is what most likely is your problem, instead of them giving you a lousy $6 bucks for your old battery, get a fresh battery anyhow, but keep your old one if tests show it's not fully dead. Buy a "trickle charger", that will supply as steady 13.8 volts at 2AMPS to the battery and have the old battery as a stand-by. This way, your old battery, in your garage for instance, acts as a trusty standby, and you always have a battery in the house if something should happen down the road to the new one. (If you don't buy a trickle charger and want to use your old battery as a stand-by, even though you're not using it actively, the chemical reaction will cause the battery to die anyhow).


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## royson345 (Jan 14, 2005)

was my alt. i spent the better part of the day trying to get that damn thing in there. it was tricky but i got it in. i also put a new belt on because the one that was on there was pretty dry rotted and worn down.

i put my battery on a trickle charger for the night before hooking it back up. i get a 14 volts at speed and around 13 at idle so i think thats good. it seems to be running fine now. my windows even go up and down now with a little more speed. thanx for the help guys.


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## Matt93SE (Sep 17, 2003)

heh.. alternators on this car are cake. a 15 min job.


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