Original Thread: car keeps dying...jumps the car and it last fer about 1-2mins then the rpm gauge drops to 0 and the lights start dimming and my abs light comes on after awhile the car stalls and dies. Please help...what do u guys think is the problem?

New Thread: Well I bought a brand new alternator and installed it. We jump started the car and the battery and abs light was on...i then gave it some throttle and the battery and abs light dissapeared. We left the jumper cables on fer about 15 minutes and then took it off. 5 minutes later i decided to turn my headlights on...once i did that the gauges stopped werking, the rpm meter went to 0, the abs light came on, and my lights started to dim...so i got frusturated and jus turned off the car. Someone please help me, its my only car and it hasnt been werkin fer soo long =( ...i need all the help i can get! Maybe this will help also..i converted my car from auto to manual and did a b18b swap, its a 95 civic ex. It werked fer a week then this happend..

 

fully charge the battery b4 trying to run it, DO NOT charge the battery off the alternator it is not meant for that and there is a chance u'll ruin a perfectly good alternator, any checker, autozone etc will charge and test ur battery for free. good luck

 

make sure ur battery cables are on tight and the connections are clean, and make sure the battery has enough cca's (cold cranking amps) to run ur electrical system for ur car 600 should be more than adequate, good luck finding the problem

 

i thought the alternator charges the battery?? i had the battery checked out at NTB about a month and a half ago and they said it was in good condition but that could of changed since its been sittin there and being jump start so many times...but what your saying is that if the battery is in good condition and i jus fully charge it i should be fine?

 

yah its a good possibility with ur old alternator dying, im sure it discharged the battery, and now it doesnt have enough amps to run for a long amount of time, without it being fully charged itll keep running down, and although the alternator does charge the battery it is meant to only charge it while the car is running, and only a little at a time, not meant for fully charging the battery, id strongly suggest making sure the battery is in good condition and fully charged, ive had batteries be bad that were only a month old so get it tested first if u ever have electrical issues.

 

hmmm....make sure you're charging system is actually working and everything is connected. just take a few hours to look at your engine bay from every angle and make sure there are no problems. check your ignition system (plugs, distributer, wires) and just be certain everything is connected. most of the time it's just something coming loose or a broken wire or something. my car had similar symptoms when the bolt that spun the alternator sheered off and it wasn't charging the battery. it would jump start and start to run, and as soon as i put it in gear and started to drive away, the battery light came on and it would stall out. i dont have abs tho, so that light didn't come on, of course. make sure the charging system works first, then make sure the ignition system works. it's one of those two things.

 

You didn't get that alternator at Autozone by any chance, did you?

Went through 3 on my wife's civic:

First one- Dead right off the bat
Second one- worked for about 10 minutes and died
Third one- worked for around eight months, then died after she left her lights on and had the car jumped. The Autozone lifetime warrantee didn't impress the tow-truck driver much

New alternator is AC Delco with a warrantee that covers towing

Moral of the story- Autozone bites.

 

your alternator is prolly shot by now

 

Keeping the jumper cables on for a while to sorta charge the battery was good. I don't believe you killed anything by doing what you did.

It's possible you got a bad alternator, that's been known to happen... Even AutoZoned has a warranty, right?

Make sure all your connections are good. You need good solid connections at both ends of all the big cables. Including the ground cables. Including where the wire itself is attached to the clamps. Check them all...
- battery (+) to starter
- battery (+) to fusebox or ??
- battery (-) to ground
- engine/tranny ground cable to chassis
- alternator grounded solid thru it's mounting bracket

Got a voltmeter? Charge up the battery again, run the engine. Measure the voltage across each of those wires. They should be really small, much less than a volt.

 

hey is it one of them serviceable batteries ? if so try and chack the fluid level in the battery if it is low put distilled water in there that could prolly be the problem