olddog

iTrader: (2)

today while driving, i noticed on the highway that my Battery,vsc,vsc off lights were on. that gave me an ide that something was wrong with my charging system and that the car was just running on the battery.
i quickly puled to the exit lane and made it just in time for the battery to run out of power right at the turn of the exit lane.
Had CAA come and towed the car home.
Has anyone experienced anything similar? Anyone have any idea what it might be?
My car before this incident was running 100% healthy and am guessing it has something to do with the pothole i ran over about 10mins before it all started. Am thinking maybe the alternator stopped charging cos the wire came loose or something.
any have any ideas on where my trouble shooting should start from?
I know its not the battery cos i have tested it. So it must be something with the charging system.

thanks

olddog

GS4_Fiend

iTrader: (22)

Alternator is not doing it's job.

esolo98

iTrader: (5)

I had the exact thing happen to me, but mine was at night in the middle of no where. It is the alternator, replace it and you should be good.

GS300ToM

iTrader: (32)

+1 on that... check voltage with the car on ... give or take around 14 volts

olddog

iTrader: (2)

thanks guys.
but it was working perfectly fine before the pothole incident.
can i use a multimeter to check whether the aternator is working fine in terms of output. what process does it involve?
And could it be that the connection from the battery to the alternator is cut?
is there a wire running from the positive end into the alternator? could that coming loose have caused this?

thanks
olddog

SPL FREEK

sounds like a bad altenator.

GS300ToM

iTrader: (32)

check voltage at the battery 14+... or voltage drop from power battery to power alternator.... and check ground as well

McKrevice

iTrader: (1)

Just an FYI to those that want peace of mind before this kind of thing happens. I have one of these. You plug it in when the car is off and it will give you the voltage of the battery.

When you turn the car on, it will give you the volts the alternator is putting out. I had an alt dying on me and I had to make a mad dash to the parts store and back and I slowly watched the gauge creep down from 12.5 to 11 and barely made it home, haha. Much better than being SOL and having to be towed, or having to pop the hood and bust out the multimeter.

Just my 2 cents.

And I should mention that I do not leave it plugged in all the time. Just periodically plug it in when the cars been sitting or just want to get an idea of how the alt is performing, maybe plug it in once a month for a few seconds.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/NEW-R...Q5fAccessories

sakataj

iTrader: (182)

happened to my dad in my old es300 last week. she's getting a new alternator right now.