Electrical Gremlins.....help

[nmcgrawj]

Whats up guys? Not too long ago i made a post about getting in my car and the power being there when the key is on acc. but when i go to crank is disappears...no power for anything. I found that the battery terminal was loose so i tightened it down.

That took care of the no power on start up problem, but last night i was cruising and everything was good. Then i noticed my voltmeter dropped to 12 volts...where it is when its just the battery and NO alternator. So i got to wherei was going, let it sit. Came back a few hours later, started it up and it was back up at 14 or wherever it normally is with the alternator powering the car.Drove home and BAM the gauge dropped again to N. I could tell it was getting really weak cause the car started sputtering and cutting out because the power was BARELY touching the "N" guage.

Does the alternator slowly go out? I dont see how it is coming and going like this. I just wanna buy a new alternator, new battery lines, and a Optima battery and call it a day....too bad i dont have $2-300

 

[BlackVert]

Whats up guys? Not too long ago i made a post about getting in my car and the power being there when the key is on acc. but when i go to crank is disappears...no power for anything. I found that the battery terminal was loose so i tightened it down.

That took care of the no power on start up problem, but last night i was cruising and everything was good. Then i noticed my voltmeter dropped to 12 volts...where it is when its just the battery and NO alternator. So i got to wherei was going, let it sit. Came back a few hours later, started it up and it was back up at 14 or wherever it normally is with the alternator powering the car.Drove home and BAM the gauge dropped again to N. I could tell it was getting really weak cause the car started sputtering and cutting out because the power was BARELY touching the "N" guage.

Does the alternator slowly go out? I dont see how it is coming and going like this. I just wanna buy a new alternator, new battery lines, and a Optima battery and call it a day....too bad i dont have $2-300

i noticed a couple of days ago on the way home my gauge was real low too. after driving a while it was back up. i think i read somewhere that it is higher (like 14v) when charging the battery and lower (like 12.5v) when the battery doesn't need a charge. does that make sense?

 

[nmcgrawj]

Yea it does, but man the car go sooooo WEAK. I shut off all the accessories to conserve power. The battery HAD no power because when i stopped it BARELY wanted to start. CHuggggg......chuggggg.....click click click. It started up fine today though.

I know the guage deeps low sometimes, but it wouldnlt budge at all and it doesn't come back after driving for a while...

I dont know, thanks for the input.

 

[gcomfx.com]

I wouldn't just throw parts at this one:

Go to a parts store, they can test your battery, altenator, etc.

Also don't rule out your ignition switch. I've put 3 on my car now. The second one didn't work straight out of the box. But my symptoms were a bit different.

 

[nmcgrawj]

I wouldn't just throw parts at this one:

Go to a parts store, they can test your battery, altenator, etc.

Also don't rule out your ignition switch. I've put 3 on my car now. The second one didn't work straight out of the box. But my symptoms were a bit different.

Yea i forgot about getting them tested. Autozone right? I will have to do that later this week. I have study sessions and exams until wednesday....Gotta love the work for Engineering at the University of Michigan... Hopefully it will pay off in about 2.5 years