Well that fucking sucked. I replaced the battery with a Duralast two days ago. It ran just fine yesterday when I was driving it down to my brother's shop. We replaced the spark plugs, oil change, and all that jazz. As I'm driving it back up to Indy and the battery light came on.
I read the manual while I was driving and it said it could be the alternator, the battery, wires, belt, or something else. It was running fine for a while, I stopped and got gas and it started back up just fine. So I started thinking it was just being a bitch.
So I get back to Indy and decided to get some food before I stopped at home to check out the car and it starts sputtering and nearly lost all power in the drive through. I manage to coast into a parking stall and it just dies on me. By process of elimination I conclude the alternator just shit the bed and need a new one.
My bro drives up and picks me up and we head to Autozone to pick up a new one. We drive back to Steak N Shake and replace it. We jump the car and it starts up but the battery light keeps flickering on and off still -- not good. I drive it around a bit hoping the battery just needed to recharge itself. It runs fine, so my brother heads home after following me for a bit and I headed to Autozone to turn in the old alternator to get my core charge refund.
I pull into Autozone, shut it off, turn in my shit, and then head back out to the car and it won't start -- dead battery. So I jump it again, have the guy in the store test the voltage output of the alternator, it was fluctuating between 12.8 and 11.7 volts, when it should be a constant minimum of 14 volts. So I started fucking around with stuff and started to think that maybe there was a problem with the wiring but couldn't find anything. I leave it running to see if it will just recharge the battery more, but nothing. The engine was revving up and bogging down while it idled and it just wasn't charging the battery or supplying enough power to run the engine.
I had to park it overnight because Autozone was closing and I had no tools to work on it. My brother drove back up this morning and we headed over there to work on it. Took out the alternator, had it tested and it passed. I had them get me a new one anyway and tested it and it passed too. So I said fuck it, I asked for a new alternator and a new serpentine belt and replaced both of then. Jumped the car and it ran like a dream. So apparently the pulley on the alternator was fucked or it was the belt skipping. Either way, I don't have to worry about either one of them now, or forever because of the lifetime warranties on both.
It was a major pain in the ass, but in the end everything worked out and the car is running fine now. It just pisses me off that I just bought this car and already had to dump $400+ in parts already, but oh well. It's all fixed and ready to go for a long time now.
My next task is fixing the driver's side seat heater and replacing the freon for my A/C. And then, I car start working on the goddamn car and spend money on upgrades instead of repairs.
ya...
