Alternator Belt, ECU, weird noises. Please Help

[badabing33a]

ok a couple days ago, my ECU was ticking like crazy, my talon lost power, and stalled alot upon stops. i adjusted the BISS screw. still ran like crap and ECU still ticked. today, i wake up, try to start the car, battery is dead. charged it for a while, started right up. then it stalled a could seconds later when i gave it gas. wouldnt start. i noticed a weird clicking sound coming from the left rear. Fuel Pump? charged the battery again, started up again. i took it up the road and it hauled a**. No clicking ECU, nothing. i later went to warm the car up to go to the bank, battery was dead again. charged it for a few mins, started it up, ran to the bank. Ran great for about 10 mins. then slowly lost power. Now my Alternator belt screeeeeeams. all 3 pulleys (waterpump, power steering, and alternator) are turning fine. The belt is probably 2 mounths old as the original belt finally snapped a while ago. would this belt cause all these problems? like i stated before my ECU doesnt click anymore. i dont understand why the battery wont stay charged when the car is off. i can drive it as long as i want, and it wont die or anything. please help.

 

[LandoAWD]

Ignoring a Wiseman on such a simple matter is asinine. No more misspelt posts from the OP until checks are performed.

 

[UGOT8UP]

The easy way to test if the alt is charging is to start the car and dissconect the battery, if the car is still running after you unhook the battery cables the alt is charging.(your car still runs while driving but will not crank back up when you shut off) this is a easy fix bro dont over compicate it

the belt is only like $30. not to mention it has a 6 month warenty. and if you have time, you should explain how the electrical system works. no matter what, shouldn't the alternator charge the battery enough to have lights? but that battery does barely have any juice. the belt is squeaking for a reason. its probably worn out.

Reason for the dim lights your alt puts out 60amps (just makin up a number) to charge your battery and run your accories while you are driving down the road, 10amp engine, 30amp headlamps, 20amp radio so forth and so on, your battery is a shock absorver for your electrical system it puts out additional amps to the ele system when your alt can not put out enough amps to keep up with the demand, dim lights are happening because your battery is not giving the system the extra amps it needs

 

[steve]

The easy way to test if the alt is charging is to start the car and dissconect the battery, if the car is still running after you unhook the battery cables the alt is charging.(your car still runs while driving but will not crank back up when you shut off) this is a easy fix bro dont over compicate it

Please do not repeat this bad advice, You can trash the radio, alternator, ECU, and anything else electronic by doing this. Go do a google search on load dump.

This type of diagnostic was ok back in the days of mechanical voltage regulators, carbs, and points but is dangerous now.

The voltmeter check will tell us if the alternator is charging at all. A voltage check under load with the headlights, blinkers, blower, defroster will let you know if the alternator can keep up.

Since the most common causes here are a bad alternator or a blown alternator fuse what I've asked for should quickly answer if either are the case.

 

[UGOT8UP]

Please do not repeat this bad advice, You can trash the radio, alternator, ECU, and anything else electronic by doing this. Go do a google search on load dump.

This type of diagnostic was ok back in the days of mechanical voltage regulators, carbs, and points but is dangerous now.

The voltmeter check will tell us if the alternator is charging at all. A voltage check under load with the headlights, blinkers, blower, defroster will let you know if the alternator can keep up.

Since the most common causes here are a bad alternator or a blown alternator fuse what I've asked for should quickly answer if either are the case.

True but this guy does does not have a DMM and is just dead set that his belt is causing his electrical woes so pullin the cable off of the batt is an easy way to test it, Best bet is to go out and buy a DMM and test the system the correct way!!!

 

[steve]

Best bet is to go out and buy a DMM and test the system the correct way!!!

Thank you, it's far cheaper for him to spend $20 on a DMM than risk hundreds with a test that could damage the parts he's trying to test.

There are a lot of quick and dirty things people do when the understand the risks but I try not to share them with people who could hurt themselves if I did.

 

[UGOT8UP]

Thank you, it's far cheaper for him to spend $20 on a DMM than risk hundreds with a test that could damage the parts he's trying to test.

There are a lot of quick and dirty things people do when the understand the risks but I try not to share them with people who could hurt themselves if I did.

True there is a right way and a wrong way to do things and I would not tell somebody to do something that I would not do, just the other day I hap to perform that test at home when I was having my battery woes and I left my DMM at the shop, so I had to resort to pulling my cable off to verify my problem, I have 2 big aftermarket cooling fans on my car that are pulling over 40amps and they are wired direclty to my battery so they run after I shut down my car (killed my battery) long story short I replaced my battery with a yellow top and added a switch for my fans, Problem is now resolved with a diagnostic check that only took 1min to perform and in my case did absolutly no harm to my car with that said do it at your own risk if you cant front the boot to get a DMM.

 

[steve]

True there is a right way and a wrong way to do things and I would not tell somebody to do something that I would not do.

Dang, I really thought you were getting it.

It's about not telling people how to do things that might allow them to shoot themselves in the foot even if we might do them ourselves if the risks can be avoided. You know, like do as I say not as I do.

I've never had the car fall off the jack on me but I don't tell others to do it because it's risky and stupid. It's might take a little longer to put the jack stands under the car or you might have to go buy jack stands so you can put them under the car, but it's the "right" thing to do and should be what you pass along to others.

I don't care if you have pulled the battery cable of hundreds of times with no bad effects. It's not a good idea, there are safer and better ways to check and I'd really thank you if you kept your way a secret, it might save somebody a ton of grief who wasn't so lucky and keep you from feeling bad because your suggestion cause the problem.

 

[VETTE_50_TH]

Unfortunately, i had to always readjust my battery's positive end ALL the time, (while the car was off of course), and now, after 2 years i replaced the terminals with nicer ones and cleaned them up real good, and made everything look new. And thats the only way i will tell someone to fix that problem.

Please, OP, you are dragging the inevitable, just test the damn battery and alternator.

James

 

[Obake]

If you want to safely test if your battery is dead (aside from a battery tester), just borrow a friends good battery for a few minutes and try it out.

The alternator puts out 'dirty' power. Its ugly and jagged-spikey. The battery acts as a stabilizer: when spikes are low, it gives up some power to raise them. When spikes are too high, it eats up some of that voltage getting charged. Disconnecting your battery and running is a great way to blow the caps on your ecu (which are designed to also stabilize the power) and fry a perfectly (well mostly perfect) good $350 piece of electronics. All that to avoid borrowing a friends battery for free or buying a $20-30 multitester.

I beleive i've seen a post where someone did just that either here or on vfaq somewhere. they did it twice before they learned: the 1st time lasted about 1.5 hours. the second time lasted about 6 seconds. (that was several months ago, so it may have been elsewhere.) Dont press your luck with these cars or they will bite you in the ergh-hum.

 

[badabing33a]

ok i am barrowing a voltage meter in a couple days. i think ill stick with the safer route. the belt looks fine. basically new still. so idk why its be squealing as loud as it is but most likely a bad alternator or battery. ill let you know how the test goes. i dont think i have a good battery around i could use either. but ill look bc once i found a chevy 400 block in the garage. i thought we only had 4 of them but i was wrong . anyway i will let everyone know what i find out.

 

[badabing33a]

ok so i charged the battery i got out of my neon. it didnt need much charging. i took the talon up the road. the belt was still sqealing. i got back and when i got out, i smelt rubber. popped the hood and there was rubber shavings just like when my belt snapped a while back. so i think there is no reason not to think the belt has been the problem.

 

[steve]

Unsubscribing.
We are now at post 37 and haven't addressed the suggestions made in post #3. I wish you luck but I don't have any more time to spend on this.

 

[DSMified92]

ok dont pull your battery cable off by any means while the car is running. i have a 92 n/t for a daily driver and i had the same problems you are having squealing belt dead battery no power so on so forth.its the alternator the reason your belt is squealing because when the alternator kicks on it puts a horrible load on the belt....and yes our belt system sucks+1 to the guy who said that but your alternator is bad because like i said it puts a heavier load on the belt then usual because its tryin to keep up.your car will run for like 5 to 10 mins with a dead battery until your alternator gets to hot and kicks out then the car dies so i can already tell you its your alternator.and yes its this cold weather it gits us everytime

 

[badabing33a]

yea that makes sense. about how much are alternators? and does every1 agree with this?

 

[VETTE_50_TH]

Depends on where you get it. (IE. JNZ, autozone, advanced auto) I got one from advanced for around 90 bucks i think.

James

 

[DSMified92]

there 100 dollars there about at autozone and advance i bought mine for a little over 80 for my awd with my 20% discount at autozone...i went to a junkyard a pulled 1 for my n/t after all its just my daily driver.

 

[UGOT8UP]

WOW, I can't belive this is still going on!!! A DMM and 5 min of your time will tell you the problem so you don't have to guess and waste money on thing's that you may not need.

 

[badabing33a]

if the alternator was the problem, why would my car run for an hour with headlights, heater and sterio cranked up, defrostoster, wipers, etc? the car runs great now with a fully charged battery and bright headlights and has power again. Im still changing the belt in the morning. Thanks to everyone that tried to help.

 

[UGOT8UP]

I'm glad to hear that you finnaly replaced that battery. If you got rubber flying off of that belt you might want to change it out before you go driving for an hour with every thing turned on have a good one.

 

[badabing33a]

thanks man. i didnt really care about the belt. i drove for an hour but no more than 5 miles from home. just drove around awhile to make sure the battery stayed charged. Lights didnt dim or anything.

 

[badabing33a]

the battery wasnt the problem. but its fixed. the tensioner bolt on the alt was gone. but i put another one in. should have noticed it awhile ago.