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  1. #1
    Road Tinnies
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    BG Mechanics: Car Starting Problems

    Hey hopefully someone can maybe shed some light on my problem until my mechanic gets back to me. Unfortunately work colleagues or family dont know much about cars.

    Basically i drove into work this morning fine, no problems car hasnt given me any trouble in about 2 months where the battery died. Bought a brand new one and its been running fine.

    Anyways, i got into work this morning and just before the work car park there is a coded gate, i went to get out of my car not realising i left it in gear and the car cut out when i took my foot off the clutch. Tiredness/Nabness w/e its happened a couple of times its not major to cut out the car from what im aware of. But when i went to start it back up it wouldnt start for me at all. There was originally some power going to the car because the radio was coming on but it wasnt firing at all.

    I got someone to jump me with some leads and that managed to jump the car and i got it running, when they went to take the leads off it just completely cut out... Now no power is going to the car at all, not even the radio or the anti theft light..

    Im hoping its nothing major so close to christmas.. Any help or opinions would be great thanks!

  2. #2
    I Have The Clap Again
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  3. #3
    Resident Moogle
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    Sounds like alternator to me also, given my mother just went through the same thing recently.
    (and I had to be the poor bastard that had to get out of the car and finish pushing it through an intersection)

  4. #4
    Road Tinnies
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    Ye i was thinking that too but from what little i know wouldnt a bad or blow Alternator not allow me to drive around for a good while? Wouldnt the battery run dead without the alternator before i even got to work, had heating, lights and stereo on this morning.

    Or do you beleive it just went after i let it cut out?

    Thanks again for the help.

  5. #5

    Even with a blown out alternator you would be able to drive around on your battery's power. Then after your vehicle killed there was not enough juice to crank the starter leaving you stuck. If anything you should have noticed dimmed lights the farther you went. Or at least the battery light on.

    Once I had the choice of towing my vehicle or trying to get into town dealership with a bad alternator. I got lucky and made it on battery power after going 16 miles. By the time I got to the dealership everything was dim and it was stuttering pretty bad. But it beat a towing bill.

  6. #6
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    It's almost definitely the alternator. If you have AAA call them, we have battery service technicians that can come out and test the battery as well as the starter and alternator. If there is a drain, they'll find it. The thing with the alternator is that the car will run fine once you actually get it started. But everytime you turn it off you're going to need to jump the battery to get moving again. You'll be fine going a very short distance but if you're planning on driving a bit, you're never going to make it.

    When the vehicle is running the alternator is still draining the battery. You can usually nurse it 10-20 miles if you're lucky before it dies again.

  7. #7
    Resident Moogle
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    Quote Originally Posted by BrillCS View Post
    When the vehicle is running the alternator is still draining the battery. You can usually nurse it 10-20 miles if you're lucky before it dies again.
    All about hoping you hit no red lights, since it's harder on the battery to resume from a stopped position than to keep on rollin'.

    Man, my mom's car was fun when it was barely alive. Lights were non-existent, the turning signals were on a delayed response, car chugged, and for some reason we heard a loud clunk sound, likely due to the near-dead battery.......not to mention the near constant clicking we kept hearing as the LCDs on the dash kept flickering with the noise.

  8. #8
    Relic Weapons
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    How old is the battery in you car? You either need a new battery or like others said your alternator is bad.

  9. #9
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    How old is the battery in you car? You either need a new battery or like others said your alternator is bad.
    Depends. If the car is dying when he's driving it, it's definitely not the battery. That's kind of the big indicator of whether it's a battery related problem or not.

  10. #10
    Ridill
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    If it's the alternator, it sounds like it's a partial thing. It's still circulating power, but it's not actually charging. You'll still have to replace it, but what you explained kinda doesn't sound like purely the alternator.

    If anything it sounds more like a bad connection that got jarred loose by the clutch-release incident.

    Before you do anything major, you should take both your old battery and the new one to Wal-Mart (or any auto zone store etc.). They'll test them for you for free. There's a good chance they're both fine.


    If they are both fine, then you should either take your alternator to the same place (they'll test those free, too). If you don't want to take it out (honestly, don't mess with taking out alternators unless you're pretty strong and it's mounted in a convenient position, if you don't know what you're doing it can be really tough to get them back in right) then just take your car in wherever. Auto Zone etc. won't be able to test it so easily then, but anyplace that has actual people working on the cars will have np doing it free or at least very cheap.

  11. #11
    Ridill
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    Also, on a manual you should be able to push-start it and get it to run a bit with almost no power, if you can't even do that you've most definitely got either a bad connection, or the alternator was in reeeeeeally bad shape and the sudden stop just fucked it completely.

    You should be getting a belt squeal, though, if the alternator is that fucked.

  12. #12
    The Flying Scotsman
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    Might just be the voltage regulator. Most alternators now have the voltage regulators bolted to the back of them and they can be replaced without replacing the alternator itself, most times. Depends upon cost effectiveness, it might be just as expensive to replace one as the other.

    Voltage regulators are all solid state nowadays, and intermittent issues seem a lot more likely to be solid-state component related than a simple rotary device like an alternator. If the brushes inside the alternator go out, it just stops working, because it isn't generating any current. If some part of the voltage regulator fails, it's possible it could work intermittently before completely failing.

  13. #13
    Road Tinnies
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    Thanks for all the help and advice.

    Got it checked over by the mechanic. The only problem was the earth lead/wire had snapped due to the cut out where the car jolted forward.

    Running fine no alternator or anything needed. Was a weird one alright

  14. #14
    Bagel
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    Quote Originally Posted by Plow View Post
    Also, on a manual you should be able to push-start it and get it to run a bit with almost no power, if you can't even do that you've most definitely got either a bad connection, or the alternator was in reeeeeeally bad shape and the sudden stop just fucked it completely.

    You should be getting a belt squeal, though, if the alternator is that fucked.
    This would not work with a modern (fuel injected car)...if the battery was completely drained from not being charged, he wouldn't be getting any spark or fuel, so the car would not run at all.

    Also, the belt would only squeal if it was overly tight (bearing the alternator would squeal) or was too loose (slipping on the surface, not gripping the pulley). This wouldn't happen just because the alternator was bad.

  15. #15
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    The only problem was the earth lead/wire had snapped due to the cut out where the car jolted forward.
    Hmm. That's not something you see too often.

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