im stumped

[dylan020]

ok so i drove down to FL after my finals on wednesday. I get all the way to south georgia and my lights dim pretty bad and when I stop at a gas station, it died. Well, I waited about 4 hours for somebody to show up and get a jump...works fine until I get to about 40 miles from home. The rpm's start dropping to zero and the batt. gauge drops at the same time. I got it towed and the alternator changed. The first one they put on was defective and the second one got me home (40 miles) plus some driving intown. My dad tried to take it for a spin yesterday but it did the same thing and died on him! Well, he gets it towed back home and as soon as the damn thing gets off the truck, it fires right up after being dead when he was picked up?!?!!?

Anybody have any ideas if its something else?? Could it be that I happened to get 2 defective alternators in a row?? It has a brand new battery also, just bought it maybe 2 weeks ago...

[Italian LX]

Check all your battery cables and connections. Make sure there isn't any corrosion on the posts or in the wiring.

[03slobra]

Are you charging the battery or just jumping it off.If you dont let it charge a little bit or if you jump it then cut the lights on and go it puts a lot off stress on the alt. and could burn it up.I have went through 3 because of this.

[Craig K.]

Are you charging the battery or just jumping it off.If you dont let it charge a little bit or if you jump it then cut the lights on and go it puts a lot off stress on the alt. and could burn it up.I have went through 3 because of this.

I second this, I would have the battery fully charged, or better yet try and get a free replacement.

Probably when the alt died, it way drained the battery and could have never been fully charge back up yet.

I would also check the alt output directly with a multi-meter and make sure it is putting out about 13+ volts.

[94five0]

had the same thing happen in the terminator. alty killed my first battery and so i got a new battery (needed it anyway) but a week later, i got stranded from finding out the alty wasn't fully recharging the battery..(apparently this is not an isolated incident w/ the 03) wouldn't hold a cold jump from cables for more than 20 seconds. i managed to fully recharge the new battery i put in a week before, and got it to a local shop..

[dylan020]

ok, so heres a little update.... I get back from Colorado and try to crank the car. It doesnt do anything but turn over as long as you want, but doesnt catch to crank. We put a new starter on yesterday and as soon as we put it on and until this morning it cranked right up with no problems. So, this morning we try to crank it and it goes back to just turning over but not cranking????

[dylan020]

dizzy and cap seems to have fixed the problem, we werent getting any fire

[SvoBrown]

Toyota did the same thing. I ended up changing the cables on the ground and power side of the batt. Clean everything and replace if needed.