Have been driving the car fine. NOticed the Wiper fluid idiot light has been on for awhile. I was driving and my lights started to flicker. Headlights and all. I took a left turn and as i turned my blinker on my car completly died.

Tried to quickly put it in 1st and dump the clutch in attempts to start again but nothing. The car was completely dead. like there was no battery in the car.

I sat there quietly contemplating, and heard this buzzing/electrical noise coming from the engine bay. i took my key out and popped the hood and noticed the noise was coming from the wiper fluid tank. i unplugged the battery and noise stopped.
connected and it started buzzing again.

Im assuming that is causing a draw on the battery possibly?

our kia wasnt able to jump my car so we used the jeep and it fired right up.
i put water in the washer tank to turn the light off. Got in the car and heard a noise ive never heard before. it was the seatbelt light/buzzer now. I buckled up and it went off.

but when i revved or am under load it comes on is drawing from my battery.
I took off headed home and the whole way my lights were flickering and almost dying.

i made it home and turned on all my electrical stuff and the car died completely. Like i hade no power to anything. Not even my clock or door lights when you open them. I tried to crank it but it only clicked and thats it.

Im stuck. Is this an obvious sign of a bad alternator? or is it more on there being a draw somewhere?


What im more looking for is HOW should i go about this and what to test/eliminate first?

 

it kinda sounds like a dead or dying Alt, assuming you already checked for a good connection on the battery terminals this could be what killed your battery. low voltage can cause a whole lot of weird problems like random buzzers going off. do you have a digital multi meter?

check output voltage ON the alt with the engine running, it should be anywere between 12v-14.5v, if it is check it at the battery and make sure it's within .5v of what the ALT is kicking out. if it's not it's time to check the resistence of the ALT charging wire. it shouldn't be anymore then .5ohms max! if that all checks out then repost your results and i'll try to help you more but those are the first 3 basic things i'd check.

 

okk. thanks!

 

This type of thing happened to me not too long a go. One day my lights just started flickering. I didn't think it was the alternator because it was less than 1 year since I replaced it. But,I checked the voltage and it was putting out about 13.9 volts at idle.

So I decided to try disconnecting the alternator. Started the car a ran it off of the battery and no more flicker. Connected the alternator again and the lights flickered. Needless to say, I replaced the alternator again and problem solved.

Side note: don't buy anything from Autozone unless you like replacing things frequently.