electrical mess

[mgsx98]

so lately i"ve been having some troubles. the first sign that showed me there was some electrical problems was when i found that my low and high beam bulbs went out.. all four of them? i replaced them and checked the wiring for all the bulbs and saw that everything was okay. then a couple days later my stereo was not working right the only way i would get sound was if i turned something on the dash on. then again i checked the stereo wiring and the speakers and everything looked ok.

so today when i woke up to go to school i noticed that my car stunk! it actually stunk like sewer. my first thought was that i had hit an animal and the stench stuck. on my way back to school i was just driving normal and the stereo just burnt up! like i saw smoke coming out of it. i knew it wasnt good so i just parked the car and called my bro. turns out the battery was dry there was no juice in it. thats what made that stench. luckly i still had guarantee on it so i got it for free. the car worked fine after i installed the new battery but i jus brought the car home. now i have no idea where to start lookin any help?

i tried being descriptive.

 

[luv2rallye]

Sounds like the alternator may be bad putting out too high a voltage which burned up your lights and battery.
Check the voltage at the battery:
Stop engine and everything off. Measure battery voltage (should be 12V or higher). Start engine and measure battery voltage (should be around 14.4V within 0.5V or bad alternator). Now turn high beams on and again measure battery voltage with them on (should still be around 14.4V within 0.5V or bad alternator).

 

[TALONTRAX]

Get a new battery in there & check the charging system - it sounds as though your alt. is over-charging & first fried your headlights, then fried your sound system, & boiled all the water out of the battery . . .

 

[mgsx98]

that's pretty much how it happened. Im taking the alt. so it can be rebuilt. another thing though is that this time it fried all the bulbs in the front of the car, stereo system, and the sunroof and defrost buttons too. how would this be fixed?

 

[knochgoon24]

Get the alternator checked before you get it rebuilt. An autozone, pepboys, advance auto type place will usually test it for free.

 

[mgsx98]

yeah that's what im doing.. hopefully it all works good.. ill post some more info later.