JDOldNo7

Ok so basically, its been less than a year since I swapped my alternator for new. Actually, I ended up swapping the entire charging system within this past year. Thats what makes this so frustrating. Here's the situation:

I was driving my car in Old City Philadelphia on one of those really bumpy stone paved roads yesterday, and it rattled my car pretty violently. Since then the battery started dropping voltage, the belt started squealing, and just about an hour ago it finally used up the whole battery. Classic drain scenario. Pulled over into the Wawa, got it towed to my house, and when he unloaded the flat bed he tried jumping it for me with a jump box. It failed to jump my car, but I noticed that it was trying to turn over. The alt seems to be restricted, and the battery is not able to be jumped. My battery died with an alternator that was less than a year old, and I'm pulling my hair out looking for the receipt. Here's the question:

>>Is there a possibility that something is killing my alternator and thus the battery as well? I'm gonna go get them both tested.

Dunno if this is gonna be helpful, but this past summer my fan motor kept frying the relay. Like it was pulling too much power. I had to up the amperage on the fuse too. I'm on my 3 fan motor, but it seems to be holding up alright. FINGERS CROSSED.

Gimme some feedback if you can fellas. Thanks.

urbanhunter44

iTrader: (3)

If things are frying often times you'll have a grounding issue. On the 86s you should have a 12si style alt right? Not only does it ground through the bracket to the block but it also has a grounding screw on the back that needs to be ran to a good ground on the frame.

It's possible it went bad, I've had them go bad that quickly before.

whoaru99

New alternator as in brand new? Or new as in new to you but a re-manufactured alternator?

If the latter, personally, I have not had very good luck with reman alternators.

If it puked going over a really bumpy road, to me that suggests bad connections somewhere. But, if your battery was near the end anyway it's not inconceivable that the rough road shook something loose inside that shorted out some of the cells.

Damon

Agreed with above. I think the shaking might have finally done in an old/marginal battery.

Even if the alternator is dead as a doornail the car should still start with a charge and a jump. If the battery is toast a jump will often produce marginal results, like you experienced.

A jump is just a "helper" for your battery. Just enough to hold voltage high enough under the load of the starter to get it cranking so it will fire (after which, the alternator largely takes over the job of holding adequate voltage while running and charging the battery back up).

Put it on a charger overnight, take the charger off, wait 10 minutes and check voltage at the battery. It should be about 12.5V. If it's significantly lower than that, the battery is toast.