What do you mean battery is toast? Is it leaking? The car doesn't turn on? You can easily test your alternator. Turn the car on and disconnect the positive terminal on the battery. If the car shuts off the alternator is not working.

I had to car towed to the nearest place (walmart) so have to try to charge is and that said is was fried so i can't even get the car to start!

Take it to a parts store after the battery gets replaced and have them check your cars charging system. Sometimes after an alternator is rebuilt something else can fail as it's not a new alternator.

ok I will do that thank you!

Most likely it's going to be your alternator. Our cars are sensitive to alternators & the aftermarket alternators from all the parts places are basically junk. If you need to replace your only get and OEM like from one of our supporting vendors selling OEM parts. Some folks on this site are doing the "Saturn Alternator Mod" and claiming good results. Something you could consider but it will requiring a little (junkyard) shopping, a little fab work for the bracket, and minor grinding on the Saturn housing to make fit. There are post on here concern this swap.

if you do get a replacement alternator make sure you get the upgraded 90 amp unit from a gvr4, if your going to buy another alternator might as well get the higher amp unit.

part number for the aftermarket 90 amp alternator Bosch Part# AL4008X

Sounds like you may have a possible dead cell in the battery, bad battery or bad alternator. And yes even new ones can be faulty, especially auto zone, and we all recommend oem. Turbo cars run hot and heat likes to kill alternators. You can bring the car and have them just test the battery and alternator. Auto zone will do it for free and can at least help point you in the right direction. Let us know any other things that you noticed, new noises etc. And what the results of the load test and alt output.

once I noticed that all the dash lights came on and the car was sputtering this was like 3 weeks ago

Sounds like alternator dying, it can happen very quick. Have it tested, where about do you live? If you can't get your cat to auto zone or battery shop etc, even a gas station garage could help for free. If not one of us are usually willing to help a fellow dsm'er, we know your pain and its always good experience for me to practice diagnosing .

Buy a new battery. The old alternator sucked the life out of that other one. And replace that alternator. Plain and simple fix.

Turn the car on and disconnect the positive terminal on the battery. If the car shuts off the alternator is not working.

Click to expand...

Nope, never do this practice !

This raises hell with the output rectifier of the alternator and the regulator which can cause premature alternator failures !

Use a multi tester, or have it checked out professionally.

There is a possiblity that the shop used the wrong regulator to rebuild your alternator, this the battery gets damaged slowly and eventually it gives in. For example a dead cell

Best bet is going to be new batt. Then like said by gus, go to your nearest Parts store and let them check out your alternator. As it is the most likely cause. But if it only happens when u turn on your heat/ blower there may be a electrical short in your heater/blower motor wiring somewhere. Hope for the best though.

Thanks everyone! they told me if I was to warranty the battery there'd be no point cause it would be dead by the time I get home (5 min drive)[DOUBLEPOST=1416240903][/DOUBLEPOST]

mercaholik said:

Sounds like alternator dying, it can happen very quick. Have it tested, where about do you live? If you can't get your cat to auto zone or battery shop etc, even a gas station garage could help for free. If not one of us are usually willing to help a fellow dsm'er, we know your pain and its always good experience for me to practice diagnosing .

Click to expand...

I live in Kansas City, MO

No if you keep all accessories off headlights, heat, radio etc, you should be able to make it a 5 min drive. It's gonna drain the battery a little and you gotta charge it after. Unless you can get it towed then that's the time to get it to a shop. Wait how do they know for sure it's the alternator? You really need to get a volt meter and swap your battery out where you got it, lie if you have to, then go start the car put the volt meter on the battery terminals with car running. Put meter to V dc put the red lead on the + (red) black on - and look for 13.xx volts. Anything lower or higher and its alternator.

I was able to jump it enough to get it to advanced they did a test and it says theres a ripple in the charging system, also I was wondering something I forgot to mention... My A/C pulley is damaged would that have anything to do with it?

Your AC pulley being bent or something could possibly damage it although I doubt it.

Since you have a GSX your turbo is generating a lot of heat. If you have a after market O2 dump or down pipe you could have way higher heat than before. If your car has had the stock heat shields from the exhaust manifold or the O2 dump you could have the same issue as well. Most DSM alternators die to heat because of bad placement. Oil getting on the alternator is another common cause of DSM alternator failures, and don't forget your power steering is very close to it as well and could be leaking all over it.

My advice to you is to make sure you have some kind of heat shielding to divert heat away from the alternator and check for oil or power steering leaks.

There are several oil seals on the alternator side of the motor. Any of them leaking can go from the timing belt and along on the pulleys/belts and kill alternators. In all honesty, I had this problem when my oil seal was bad on my oil pump/balance shaft. If your valve cover leaks oil that could be it as well. Don't forget the PVC system in our cars likes to fail and spray oil all over the place. If you are experiencing any of these issues expect dead alternators.

Aside from the two main killers of our alternators (Heat and oil), you also have to take into account other things. I have a 1g so sure it is a bit different. The previous owner removed all the splash guards, so before I found new ones when I would turn the tires would throw water onto the alternator. This is also something to check and fix. A electrical issue can also kill your alternator, however those are harder to identify and I feel as though someone else would be better suited to help you fix this type of problem. I will say though, if you are trying to run a nice sound system on a stock DSM alternator good luck, you'll probably significantly shorten it's life.

Another thing to take with a grain of salt is that auto parts store alternators are "garbage". I've personally been running one for a while now. I went through a lot before I fixed my oil leak when I did my timing belt the last time. I might have had to replace them which only takes about 45 minutes for me now, but they were lifetime unlimited replacements and I don't have to worry about a thing in the future either. OEM probably is better, but if you are having problems with them dying already a lifetime replacement for way less than a OEM alternator with no warranty might not be a bad thing. You are currently in a position of not knowing why or even if they are dying, the unlimited replacement option is most likely your best choice.



Now, if you DO have a aftermarket O2 dump or down pipe that makes it so you can't use the stock heat shields. I STRONGLY suggest finding someone who can cut/weld/fabricate a nice cheap heat shield for your alternator.

I'd look into trying to find a new AC pulley if I were you. They are pretty cheap on here.

Ok thank you I appreciate it! crazy thing though my boyfriend and I got out alternators at the same place and his car is now down but his wont crank we got a brand new battery and all we hear is a click! he has a chevy though

A fully charged good battery should be about 12.6V. Measure it. If it's near dead, get a jump start and measure voltage at the battery while the car is running (with the jumper cables removed after starting). You should read about 13.8V to 14.3V. If so, then your alternator is sending charge voltage to the battery. Monitor the voltage for a few minutes turning headlights and heater fan on. It should only drop for a split second then recover to that range again. In this case it's probably your battery.
But if the alternator is not produing power (or your have wiring issues) the battery voltage will drop so low that the car will die.