battery/alternator messed up?

[MetallicPony]

alright, before i left for the airport to come back to MN earlier in dec., i ran a quick errand to the bank. on the way back to my house, sitting at stop light, my battery light came on. also noticed my volt meter had dropped really low. car seemed to run like crap too.

luckily, i got the car into the garage (didnt break down and miss my flight, thank god). opened the hood, didnt see anything wrong, but when i poped off the plastic piece covering the postive terminal on the battery, there was a thich layer of blue shit on the terminal.

is my battery just dead, or did my alternator take a dump too?

[Outrun]

That blue shit is probably battery terminal protective stuff people spray on to prevent corosion. Best best is to hook up a voltmeter and test to see how many volts the alternator is putting out at idle. Anything below 12 is not good.

My guess is the alt.

[tim]

9 times out of 10 when you have a batt light come on it is a faulty connection or a bad alternator.

Layer of blue shit could be corrosion, I have seen it white, green, and blue. Clean it up and have the battery/alt tested.

How old is the batt? What year is your car?

[MetallicPony]

car is 94...i think ive had that battery in there for a year and a half maybe, im not totally sure.

car had been running fine, starting up fine and everything before this

[tim]

Make sure all connections are clean and secure. Then go have the alt/batt tested. Like I said, 9 times out of 10 a battery light means faulty alt or a poor connection.

[Macs Stang]

Is there an inline fuse going to the alt? Usually when the gauge drops it is the alt taking a dump. If the regulator on the alt went bad more then likely the alt would full field if i recall correctly.

[MetallicPony]

thanks for the advice, ill check the fuse when i get back to FL

hopefuly its just that

[Scorpner]

There's some info on what to look for in this link.

[MetallicPony]

update:

took battery in to be tested, wouldnt hold a charge, got a new one and put it in the car.

started it up, still ran like shit. got a volt meter, connected positive to alt. wire and neg to battery, said 12.1. car still runs like shit and the battery light is on

time for new alternator?

[Outrun]

update:

took battery in to be tested, wouldnt hold a charge, got a new one and put it in the car.

started it up, still ran like shit. got a volt meter, connected positive to alt. wire and neg to battery, said 12.1. car still runs like shit and the battery light is on

time for new alternator?

It should be at 14.0 at idle. I would say anything below 12 is going to cause the light to come and kill the battery.

[tim]

update:

took battery in to be tested, wouldnt hold a charge, got a new one and put it in the car.

started it up, still ran like shit. got a volt meter, connected positive to alt. wire and neg to battery, said 12.1. car still runs like shit and the battery light is on

time for new alternator?

Could have been coincidence(sp?) that the batt took a shit at the same time.

If all of your connections are tight and clean then yes, you have a bad alternator.

For what it is worth I have had excellent luck with the Advance Auto house brand alternators. We local purchase them a lot here at the shop when we dont have ours in stock. They are fairly cheap and have a lifetime warranty.

[Steve]

When my alternator took a crap on the Track at BIR, my car ran perfect. I made it two more laps and pulled into the pits on my battery power. The only indication I had was a fluttering volts gage. Why wouldn't a new battery provide enough juice for the car to run correctly for at least a few minutes? Just wondering...

[Macs Stang]

When my alternator took a crap on the Track at BIR, my car ran perfect. I made it two more laps and pulled into the pits on my battery power. The only indication I had was a fluttering volts gage. Why wouldn't a new battery provide enough juice for the car to run correctly for at least a few minutes? Just wondering...

You are correct. I drove home from Roseville to maplewood at night which is about a 15 min drive for me with stop lights. I had to use my electric fan and head lights so naturally I didn't know if I was going to make it home or not because the alt took a crap. Luckily I had a pretty fresh battery and the reserve lasted long enough for me to make it home.