Bird1411

Ok first let me state I haven't checked anythin yet, which wow of course I have to, but let me explain whats led to this point so far. So last night I had to use my max to jump my friends retarded s10 that cant manage to hold a charge, and than today i leave my house, car startin up perfectly fine nothin unusual, i drive over 50 miles to skool and bak and than to work, while on my break at work i got outside to my car, and of course the car is dead, and i mean i didnt leave anythin on. so yea i end up jumpin my car and its runnin usual again, so im goin to my friends house tonight, and im doin bout 30 mph, drivin normally, and the car decided to shut off for a second, than back on, within that second i lost complete power, everythin off. it comes back on and drives fine. stayed a couple hours at my friends house and started up fine and got me home fine. now ive never heard of anythin like that hiccup that my car had, so im pretty bugged out at the situation. i figure the alternator, not so much the battery, but idk

so i guess my question is has this happened to any1 b4, cuz ive never heard of it, and if u have heard of it can u tell me wat i need to fix

ps. i tried searchin for this, but i really dont no wat im searchin for, all the responses to the search i did didnt fit, so plz some1 help me

max ride 41

iTrader: (4)

thats why you need to take it to a mechanic and have them scan it and check out whats going on. your just wasting your time guessing here man, could be a short, or an alternator, or a fuse and/or sensor going bad. my .02, good luck.

Bird1411

thanx man, i def plan on takin it to my mechanic but hes not open on the weekends, i only asked on here cuz id like to get a idea, and c if any1 else has had this problem, but yea im def goin to the mechanic for this

pmohr

iTrader: (26)

Go to AZ/AA, get the charging system checked, they do it for free.

Any codes?

Batt/brake light?

Bird1411

no lights at all
it appears as if all is normal, and feels normal
thats wat really gets me

eloleo81

wow.. never heard of a car actually turning itself back on after it dies.... still rolling im assuming? did you hook the batteries up directly when you jumped your buddies car? its possible to damage your battery or electrical system jumping a car.. it safer to clamp the ground cable to the frame.

maxgtr2000

iTrader: (29)

This happened to me, couldn't figure it out for awhile, turned out he positive battery terminal just needed to be cleaned/brushed off. I didn't have corrosion build up either, the terminal just wasn't making a good connection to the terminal clamps. Cleaned it and it doesn't shut off randomly anymore.

Bird1411

yea hooked the batteries of directly, so i prob wont do that in the future, and i thought bout the terminal connections, i dont have corrision either, try to keep it clean, but ill def check, wish the weather round here didnt suk thou
but should the battery connections really have any affect on the car after its already runnin?
i thought the batterys main purpose was for only the startup, after that ure usin the alternator, am i wrong?

Snypa

iTrader: (35)

Its funny how the smallest/dumbest things cause the biggest mind wrecking problems.

klemenz

That's weird..

Not as bad as your car suddenly losing power while you're doing 85mph.. fun stuff

TLMNICK

iTrader: (1)

Sounds to me like you have a problem at your battery or alternator. Check all your grounds, and pull your battery terminals off...make sure they're clean...and TIGHT.

95.maxima

iTrader: (4)

this happened to me once after a jump. turned out the cables were not tight enough on the + and - terminals of the battery. sounds silly, yes, but i would suggest you check this out, and maybe give a little clean up too.

jaymemaurice

I had the problem once.. washed my car, pulled forward and it died/wouldnt start.
I was like $*&#!!!! Quick popped the hood wiggled the battery connections saw some sparking, started it up and moved it away... and when I checked it out it seemed the battery posts were smaller then what the clamp could properly clamp to (crappy tire battery)... so I bent the clamp into an oval shape and put it back on.

COliveira

iTrader: (1)

Definitely sounds like loose or corroded battery terminals. The alternator does in fact "take over" after the car is running, but it does so through the battery/cables. I had this problem once on an older car. It was a manual transmission so I believe what happened was it stalled and "pop started" itself since I was in gear and moving along. Scary nonetheless. Good luck.

Bird1411

thanx guys for the help, i tightend up the connections and my max seems to b fine, ill let u no if anythin i have any further problems, but if i do im goin straight to my mechanic lol, but yea thanx again for the support

maxgtr2000

iTrader: (29)

It took 3 days of troubleshooting to figure out for me, I was thinking it was something complex and didn't figure the obvious.

cam_honestiam

iTrader: (2)

Yes, this is wrong. Everything is powered by the battery--from startup to shutdown. The alternator floats a constant ~14V charge to keep the battery charged, but even when the car is running the electrical components are drawing their current from the battery, not the alternator.

Simple test: Unhook the alternator--car still works (as long as battery can charge components), but soon battery starts to lose charge and it no longer can power components--car slowly gives up and engine stops.

Another simple test: Start the car, then remove positive cable from battery (since you're using the alternator, right?) and see what happens...

pmohr

iTrader: (26)

FWIW, the A32 will run just fine without a battery.

TLMNICK

iTrader: (1)

It will until you put load on it....if you sit at a stop light with your foot on the brake, and then you turn on your rear defogger, and AC fan, it'd probably stall out.