car dying on the road... battery or alternator?

[fredleysir]

so here's my situation... my battery seems to not hold a charge... and i have to jump the car every other day or so to get it started. now, it's recently started dying while i'm driving it, but only when i stop at lights for a minute. then, i have to jump it to get it started again... and it'll usually die again before i get home. my question is... is this a battery or alternator problem... or both?

 

[wimploki]

so here's my situation... my battery seems to not hold a charge... and i have to jump the car every other day or so to get it started. now, it's recently started dying while i'm driving it, but only when i stop at lights for a minute. then, i have to jump it to get it started again... and it'll usually die again before i get home. my question is... is this a battery or alternator problem... or both?

Chances are its your battery. This happen once to me before and my car would just shutdown at times. I had it jump started as well to get her running again.

If you have time, take your batter to Autozone for a free voltage test.

Good luck, i hope this helps.

Oh, if your battery is at least within 4-5 years old...it's time for a change.

 

[moonstation2000]

if you are killing a fully charged good battery then the prob is the alternator. if you have a pocketlogger you can hook it up and it will tell you the alternator output. it should be about 13.25.
you can also check the alt with a mulitmeter, it's real easy, any repair manual will have directions.
have autozone check your battery and you check the alternator.

 

[luv2rallye]

Disconnect one of the battery leads while running. If it dies it's your alternator.

 

[DiamondStarM]

Check for corroded terminals, if either side goes bad it will have trouble starting and may come loose while driving.

 

[ddavisaf]

Check for corroded terminals, if either side goes bad it will have trouble starting and may come loose while driving.

*pst* Tell them about the vinyl over the postive terminal too! *pst*

 

[95awdtsi3]

for you to find out if its your battery or you alternator all you need to do is start the car and let it run and get a dvom ( voltmeter) and but the leads on the batter and with your car running and if the alternator is ok you should be reading like high 13 to 14 volts and if your alternator is bad then you will only read like 12-11 or even less volts. So if it reads like 13-14 volts then you know that your alternator is working and you just need a new battery

 

[talontsi02]

Disconnect one of the battery leads while running. If it dies it's your alternator.

b-i-n-g-o was his name-o

 

[ddavisaf]

Coolant, brake, and battery

 

[EclpzLvr97]

My altenator died once and I never had these "idiot" lights come up. In fact, my gauge cluster wasn't even working because it was doing all it could to keep the motor powered.