driving home i'm cruising on the freeway when I notice my Speedo is bouncing all crazy and going to zero then up and such, then my tach does the same thing. Then half my radio stations no longer get receptions. Then I turn my A/C off and everything goes back to normal. Well I test this method a few more times turning the a/c on and off and getting these weird jitters. I pull off my exit and go to make a left turn when all of a sudden i'm punching it and the car is acting like it's in 4th and isn't going anywhere, right then I was flipping out. I calm myself down pull into autozone cause i needed to pick up a funnel anyways. Have them do a battery test and luckily my battery was dead and there weren't any other issues

 

meaning what.... your alternator is going?

 

my battery had been dieing for some time, i've had to jump it about 10-12x's in the last 3 months. I hope my alternator isn't going, I didn't even have them check

 

or could mean you just need a new battery what did they say at autozone a bad battery? or that it was a dead battery... well you know a lot about batteries... didn't you say your family invented the deep cycle battery or something?

 

battery was dead, i'm just leaving it at that, i didn't bother checking it, i'll do that later if I run into more problems. The battery I had in there was a few years old anyways so it was time to replace. I just hated having to pay for one instead of getting one of ours for free

and I never said I know a lot about batteries, I just said we own a battery company

 

Why do you have to pay for a new battery when you won a company that makes them:dunnoL

 

A dying battery is usually the alernator trying to tell you something...have it checked soon or you may ruin the new battery you just bought or worse get stranded somewhere....all this might be bullshit if you have a huge pumping sound system that is draining the battery while teh car is turned off....nuff said..hope all worjs out gud...

 

so get a new battery. if you live in a hot climate they don't last more than 2-3 years tops anyway.

 

Battery shouldn't have anything to do with anything while the engine is running. I say watch out for the same thing to happen with the brand new battery.

 

I have to agree with DarkSithCL and Proaudio22. In my opinion and experience, sounds like your alternator is going. I see this shit everyday (sadly working at Advance Auto Parts), and I test the alternators day in day out, and so definitely get that shit checked or you'll end up in the middle of nowhere. The new battery will go out eventually and it can in about a three hour drive.

 

Yep! The battery is charging while your driving. Therefore it must have something to do with your alternator.

 

That's exactly what happened to me CLPower, when my alternator went out on me. Your alternator is fried.

 

cause I couldn't even get my battery to charge the least bit, thus I couldn't start my caru, thus I couldn't go to work to get abattery :p

 

had you changed your battery first, or did you just go straight to the replacing the alternator? I'll top by them tomorrow and have them run a alternator test

 

hmm, well I brought the battery home and it's dead dead, it won't take any kind of charge

 

what have you guys paid to the get the alternator fixed/replaced?

 

The new battery or the old one?

If it's a lead acid, and it was allowed to drop below ~10 volts - chances are it's fooked for good. Most lead acids aren't very happy if the voltage drops below 1.76vpc (typical 6 cell battery). When batteries aren't happy they won't charge.

Of course, you already knew all that

Point being:
1) if you are talking about the old battery, toss it.
2) if you are talking about the new battery, your alternator is most def fooked.

Turn your car on and stick a multimeter on it. See what the voltage is. For the battery to be drained, you need to have less than 12.5v (should be ~14.4). For the battery to be dead dead, it would need to be quite low, 10-11v. If this is the case - again, fooked up alternator. Be sure to disconnect any high current draws (system, etc) before any of this testing.

 

it was a deep cycle battery, it should of taken a charge w/ no problem. I drove up real quick to have them test teh alternator, it is dead

 

I got the Red top battery from Optima...and the alternator died on me like 5 months later....

 

id pay someone to change the alt. cuz ours is a pain in the ass to do. it took me and my brother probably 4hours to do mine last year when it died on me driving down I95N heading to OC,MD in rush hour traffic.

 

yeah so your battery is fooked... there is difference with drained and ded battery...or should I say bad battery... that is all I know... was i correct in assuming your alternator is f00ked up too?

Good excuse to upgrade yet another part though.

 

If you really want a simple test... remove the HOT wire from the batt while the car is running. Dies out - its your alternator. Keeps running it is your batt.

But I agree with everybody else who recommended getting it checked professionally.

My experience is that a batt is suspect after 4 years - no matter what climate you drive in.

Good luck

 

He already found out the problem - read the whole thread man.


Deep cycles aren't any diff regarding voltage level, some FAR worse (like sealed lead acid d/c batts in UPSs). Less 10v = toast.

 

who ws that directed at?... deep cycle should beable to recharge better than lead acid though correct? that is the whole point of a deep cycle can be drained and recharged without negative effect? or I was misinformed.

 

Why did it die? because of the red top? i got the red top a couple months back also.

 

I paid 140shipped for the part with lifetime warranty. I Just replace with the same amperage as stock 105. I did all the work myself. Basically you got to take out the fan assembly, then the alternator comes rite out. Took me about an hour tops.

 

What milage did you replace yours at?

 

130,xxx

 

just grab one from your comp and return the autozone one

 

Yeah I wasn't understanding how you cant get the free one from the company you own... or you just didn't have time to or were to lazy to get it...?

Autozone takes those batteries back with your receipt I think.

 

you are correct, deep cycles can handle more charging, decharging, etc then most normal batteries.

 

I just had a shop do it cause i'm lazy, paid 150 for the new alt and 1.5 hours of labor at $50 an hour. Figure it was worth the headache. Also got lazy and had them change the blower motor in my AC but those fuckers charged me 2 hours of labor

 

Damn, took my friend and I 40 min to do my alternator, and that's only because we screw around too much. And we did it without taking out my fan, haha. We wiggled it out of there, haha. That was the hardest part. Anywayz, glad to see your car is running good again. Wanna run this Friday?

 

i changed mine in a free period last year during my last year of highschool... 45 mins in out and a soda on the way to class... its very easy.

 

Approx. 10v is still the lower limit. Deep cycle in a car/marine battery means it can take a high current draw and provide a constant power source for a period of time. For example, a 75 amp/hr battery can provide about 60amps of current for one hour (the 75 comes from a 20hr average, not a true hour). After that hour, the battery voltage will have dropped to what is considered a discharged battery, ~10v. Then recharge. This can occor many, many times IF it's not allowed to drop below the minimum voltage.

A regular starting battery, while being able to provide quite a high current for a short period of time, would probably drop to a fully discharged state (<10v) in a matter of minutes with a constant 60amp load. It won't like it either, as it's cells are not designed for such a load. Most starting batteries shouldn't lose more than a volt with a couple starting tries. If you subject a starting battery to constant "deep" cycling of large, full discharge then recharge, it will slowly die a horrible death.

 

lol you seem to like to make everything technical and drawn out lol. Same thing... Deep cycle can be drained multiple times and have no negative effect on the amount of charge it can hold, while outputting a more constant ampage. Lead acid output high ampage and drop off significantly and when drained have a negative charging effect.

 

its ur alternator...does ur ABS light goes on and and off? right when my alternator went out my tach and speedo start jumpin around and all the light on the gauge start comin on.

 

If your voltage is dropping to 10v's you got some serious issues.

 

still gotta wait for me to adjust my valves, and i've got a long day of detailing saturday so friday will be an early night for me.


You guys didn't have to lift the motor to get the alt out? That's the only reason I didn't do it myself

 

Lift the motor I only removed my fans, and it came rite out.