Battery or short?

joshheat25

Member
Nov 8, 2004
871
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16
Delaware
I have a 2000 GT and when ever I hit the brakes, or roll down the windows, or turn up the music, anything that uses power dimms the inside lights and causes my engines idle to bog down. I was wondering if anyone else has had this problem! I think my battery is going bad or maybe coils? :shrug:
 
joshheat25 said:
I have a 2000 GT and when ever I hit the brakes, or roll down the windows, or turn up the music, anything that uses power dimms the inside lights and causes my engines idle to bog down. I was wondering if anyone else has had this problem! I think my battery is going bad or maybe coils? :shrug:
mine does the same thing, when i turn on my AC full blast, my idle bogs a little, even stalled one time. but thats mostly when its cold. although i do have ~1800 watts running off my alt and battery from my audio system. do you happen to have an aftermarket stereo system? that sucks tons of power, and could be the case. someone correct me if im wrong, but coils have nothing to do with the interior lights dimming. they are part of the ignition system. if you had a bad coil or two, your car would run rough and constantly misfire. heres a good trick, let the car idle, then hold a piece of paper firmly across a tailpipe allowing a small space for exhaust to vent. if your car is misfiring, the paper will sputter back and forth and make a "whap whap whap" sound very quickly. you should be able to hear it. but i really dont think its a coil.


yeah, no plug wires here, distributers are for losers :notnice: we got coil on plug baby! :nice: :hail2:
 
bdcardinal said:
im thinking he would have a very hard time checking the spark plug wires considering that 2000 GTs dont have any.


yeah true, still call them that cause everyone else does. coil-to-plug's. but i still had a misfire becuase of the boot on the spark plug, after i ran a diagnostic on it i noticed when i turned on the headlights the revs dropped. also when i went from rev to first it would cut off too.
 
I have no aftermarket sound system and I think it is either the alternator or battery! Basically whenever I turn on something that uses power the lights on the inside dim and the engines idle is lowered. So obviously either the battery or the alternator is not working?
 
You are able to start OK, so I doubt if the battery is the cause. Does this happen only at low RPMs (less than 1500)?

First, check the condition of your serpentine belt. If it's slipping, charge capacity will suffer. If the belt is OK, my bet is on a bad/weak alternator.

Alternators have 6 diodes inside to convert the AC voltage they produce into DC. If one diode fails, you lose 16% of your charging capacity. Two, and you lost 33%.