so i got a new battery had my alternator tested and its all good. i was driving yesterday first thing my lights start to dim then my gauges stop working then my radio shuts off then i loose complete power. if i stop the car with out giving it gas it will shut off and need jumped. i kept driving it when all this was happening and the engine was sptting and sputering almost to the point where it was gonna bog itself out or stall. but after like 5 minutes of it being like that everything kicked back on and was perfectly fine ??????:con fused: what is going please help thanks

 

wow thanks for the help

 

check the ground wire at the engine block and the power side at the alt make sure they are tight and not corroded .................good luck

 

Your battery ran down, then various systems stop working due to low voltage. This all stems from the alternator not working (apparently only temporarily though, so it may have been working when it was last tested). First off check that the belt is tight.

The test is to measure the voltage at the battery with the engine running. If less than 13 volts you have a problem. Usually that's the alternator itself. If you have a 96 to 00 model it could be the fuse 15 problem.

 

what if all that is fine?

 

Did you actually check the voltage, and if so, what was the result? mk378 is definitely right on. I've had this exact same issue in the past, producing the same symptoms, and it was due to a faulty alternator.

 

so would the positive cable been the problem even if it felt tight on the terminal? i replaced the connector to the terminal and it has about 14 volts now. so even if it felt tight it might not have had complete connection? would that of been the problem?

 

Sounds to me like you're hoping for a fix rather than trying to implement some logic...

Did you clean up and retighten a connector somewhere, and then the problem went away? Or has the problem simply not returned yet, and you're hoping that by fiddling around in the engine bay you might have somehow stumbled onto the cure?

 

I had the same problem in my truck once. I turned out it was just a loose battery terminal. Make sure those are tight.

 

the connector was tight on the terminal but when driving it would rattle it loose and loose connection and the connector was to big for the terminal i put a new connector on and everything seems to be fine for now it might not be fixed but for now it is