Dead Battery? Replaced Alternator Fuse with no luck.

[Livid]

I've been having problems with my car the last couple days. It all started when I was driving and all of my lights / gauges began to get dim. Eventually the car died and wouldn't turn over, I figured the alternator was messed up. I checked my alternator fuse, the 120a one, and sure enough it had blown. I also replaced my battery ground line since it was fairly thin and old. Now today after replacing the fuse I go to start my car and nothing happens. I can't even get my headlights, or anything electrical to turn on. I tried charging my battery with a charger and the charger shows its low but every couple seconds it jumps to full charge, like something funky is happening. I tried turning the charger up to 50amps to give it a jump and I still can't start it. In fact I still get no lights or anything inside the car. It acts like it doesn't even have a battery in it. The battery is almost brand new. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[project_tsi]

I suggest looking into to see if the alternator itself is shot. But, if your leaving your car charged up then it won't start a few hours later than you need to look into your electrical system. Something is staying on, amp, deck, lights, etc, or possibly grounding out and making have a constant draw on your electrical system thus resulting in a dead battery after sitting a few hours or over night.

But, if you can charge the battery then it goes dead while driving then the first thing to do is check to see if the Alt. is dead. Alt. failure is common in cars and most the time can be easily replaced.
Heres two ways to check if your alt. is dead.

1. Take off the alt. and take it to a local auto parts store and ask them to check the voltage output of the alt. Advanced Auto Parts is a good place to go or Autozone, etc. If they tell or show you its bad then replace it. They usually run about $150 give or take a few bucks.

2. Start the car after charging the battery all night long to give it a good full charge. Then while the car is running, pull off the positive battery terminal. If the car dies then the alt. is bad, but if the car stays running, then the alt. is good, and doing its job.

 

[twitch1447]

Check your positive cables.....use a multimeter and see where the voltage loss is.

Also check out some of these threads

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/search.php?searchid=1361712


Hope this helps out a bit.

 

[Livid]

Thanks guys. I belive the alternator is toast, and is causing a dead short. When I remove the 120a alternator fuse the car seems to charge and I at least get a little power, but once I replace the fuse I get nothing. Looks like I'll just replace the alternator or get it rewound and see if that solves the problem.