Riddle Me This

The past couple of days I've noticed a slight drag when I've cranked my car up. Today, after driving a short distance I try to start my car and get nothing. Fortunately I was on a hill, so I bum started it. I end up about 2 miles away at a red light and the engine dies. None of the gauges are reading anything and when I try the bum start again, it won't do anything. (My power windows were working, but were extremaly slow) but nothing going on with the gauges

I get the car to the side of the road, yank the battery, and take it home to charge. When I get back and install the battery it cranks right up

So my question is which one of the following do you think it might be:

a) battery
b) alternator
c) bad ground
d) starter
or
e) I detailed my car yesterday and this is what is suppose to happen


Thank you for your time and happy 4th of July!


Flash

Sounds like an alternator. Check the voltage at it and make sure you're getting 14ish out of it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Maximal

Sounds like an alternator. Check the voltage at it and make sure you're getting 14ish out of it.

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My factory gauge says it is putting out around 13. Same as it usually reads.

Can the monkeys at Autozone check the voltage with the alternator still on the car?

Thanks for the response. I know this is such a simple questions for you pros. I appreciate you taking the time to help me :zombie3:

alternator is my guess too

I'll say alternator as well.

Sounds like alternator as well. Did you have the car buck at all or the lights flicker before it died? This happened to me and I thought the ECU was messing up until I checked the forums. The idiot likes usually all come on.

The stock gauge is pretty worthless to be honest with you. Autozone might be able to check with it on the car, I usually just do it myself with a voltmeter so I'm not sure though.

Sounds like you had a dead short. Look around at your harmess around the alt and AC comp.
Had it happen a few times to me and did not see an issue till the wire finally smoked. Was the wire to the AC clutch shorting to ground.

a-d can cause any of your problems. I think the bad ground is most likely, but you have to test them all. Its just part of maintenance.

-SP

check the main grounds for corrosion and how old is your battery if its over 3 years old throw it away and buy a new one

Issues during start up is the battery if the battery is bad or it has a bad cell in it it will simulate a dead short because the alternator is trying to charge a 12v battery that is no longer a 12v battery also the battery may show 12.6v but that doesn't necessarily mean its good if the battery has a faulty cell its CCA will be crap or vary low if you have a good Multimeter or know some one that does you can use an amp clamp on your power or ground wire coming off of your battery have some one turn the engine over and observe the CA or cranking amps if its close to the battery's rating then your problem is most likely stemming from the starter or alternator

or you could just take the car to Auto zone or Advance and have them test it for you