Last night my car died out on my on my way home from work. Tracing back I do recall hearing a weird sound when I fired her up, it was as if something fried out. In the 1st few miles I immediately noticed that the lights on my gauges were incredibly dim, I tried to adjust the brightness but it was already turned up all the way. I also realized that my headlights were also dim and when I tried to high beam there wasn't much of a difference.

My drive is 30 miles so I was hoping to just get her home. By the 8th mile all the intrstument lights came on like you when you turn the key 1 click prior to starting the car (ie,air bag light, battery light, etc) and my radio was shutting off and coming back on. The weird thing is that my car was still running and went on for another half mile or so. I then decided to pull over the next chance I got and thats when she finally died. I tried to restart but nothing would happen, all I can hear is a click but the engine woudn't turn.

I got her towed home (spent 200 argh) and asked the driver what he thought it could be. He said that my battery is probably dead and maybe my alternator is faulty. That makes sense but at the same time I do remember times when I would see people driving manual cars whos batteries were dead have 2-3 guys push start their car. So can a dead battery really cause this to happen?

Does anyone have any suggestions/ideas? This is a terrible time for this..I guess my Christmas list just got a lot shorter...

Thanks.

 

if u get a manual car pushed fast enough, u can put it in gear and make it start, form what ive noticed u have to be going pretty quick, 10mph+

as far as ur problem, it sounds alternator related, but ive seen dead batteries do soem wierd things before. id say have them tested first.

 

sounds like a dead battery... it coulld be the alternator too, not fully charging the system... get both checked out....

 

It sounds like a dead battery to me, if you live in New Jersey which your name hints to, the cold weather up here probably got to an already dying battery.

 

sounds more like the alt to me... my sisters battery kicked the bucket a few weeks ago and it was fine while driving, it was when she stopped that she had to keep the car revved up to keep it running.

If it cannot even stay running, I would say it is not your battery, your car runs off of your altinator while you drive.

 

it's you're alternator. go test and see for sure.

 

Yeah a bad battery can screw up all sorts of things, when you put a new one in everything will be fine though most likely. how long do these batteries last, should i be adding water or what?

i have an 01 but the sticker on my door says the mfr. date is 7/00, i have 71k miles and i noticed your car is a 2000 so i should probly look into replacing it huh?
how many miles are on yours?

 

Well thanks for the help fellaz. I'm still on my original battery so I can't be too surprised since it did last pretty long. I'm off to get a new one then have my alternator checked.

Carsarecool, I have 92,000 miles. I guess it can't hurt you to get a new one soon...it'll save you on towing expenses if your as unfortunate as I.

Thanks again everyone. We'll see what happens.

 

get it checked before you waste your money anything....

 

crank position sensor...just a thought.

 

From what I know, faulty battery can not cause something like this. While your engine is running it generates much more electricity than any car battery can provide. Don't buy a new battery, borrow it from someone for like 10 -15 minutes and see how your car runs.
It is also very unlikely that it's your alternator. (I don't understand how can a bad alternator suddenly light up all your dashboard lights.)

 

just a suggestion...this has happend to me in a similar way...check your main ground bolt that comes off the block and follow it to the negative post of your battery make sure everything is tight and secure...

 

get a volt meter to test the voltage ur getting from the alternatonr when its on....it should be around 14 i believe

 

Yea, it sounds more like something is not grounded correctly.

 

damn man sry to hear that happened...yea i would guess the battery/alternator/ground...hopefully you get it figured out soon...good luck on it

 

alternator .. the battery gr fuc$ed because of it

 

My car is acting up...when not moving..i hear a sound in the engine bay..and the 2000 maxima stalls..any thoughts.

thanks

 

 

def. altenator...gotta get a new battery with that too.

 

Because your car is not getting enough power, most of your electrical systems will start to malfunction and your car goes haywire...

 

The same thing happened to me on my way to work one morning. Had the car jumped and I made it back to work. That night I tested the battery and alternator - tested OK. Very weird, I thought. But even weirder was the fact that my Max ran great for several weeks, only for all the dash lights to come on, clock lights to dim, etc. So before the car died like it did the first time, I quickly turned off the AC and stereo, and everything was back to normal. It is very frustrating since I have no clue what it is. I wanted to get the problem fixed but didn't know what to do so I just drive and hope.

 

when my alternator died, you could turn the key like you were trying to start it..and a few seconds(like 10-15) there would be a clicking noise from inside the cluster(not the starter) and the needles would start moving up and down in weird ways. I was told by my mechanic that was a way to tell the difference between the alternator and battery. so far he has been correct because that situation was a bad alternator. When my battery died, there was no clicking sound and the needles did not move at all. try that and see what happens. I have a 2k so most 2k-2k1 stuff is the same.

 

Your alternator is dead because once you get your car started it can run off the alternator. When your alternator went out your car needed power from somewhere so it started using the battery and finally drained it. The alternator charges the battery without the alternator the battery will not survive for long. It takes alot of energy to power all the accessories on a car.

 

I always hated when people asked for advice, took the advice but never came back to let people know how it went...so here's my feedback.

It turned out to be a dying battery on it's last legs when old man winter just overcame it. The alty is fine, tested to be on a constant charge @14.0.

I'm also replacing my maf after 90K since my car constantly stalls out almost every chance it gets....getting annoying.

But thanks to all for the advice fellaz.

 

Thanks for the follow up.