hello mates
I have had very bad day with my car yesterday evening. I was on my way from las vegas on highway 15, it was 4 hours drive and suddenly my car started acting weird my radio shut down with no power (ABS) and some other dash lights were turned on, and my clock went dim right after a minute my car jerked twice and went dead with no power. i was unable to start the car even though i just had my battery replaced with optima red top, also i had rebuilt alternator 7 months ago. so in this morning i jumped start my car and it did work as normal even pep boys batry and alternator test stated no problem. but i did replace the alternator today with bosch including lifetime warranty on part. now my questions are.... what you guys think it could be if the alternator and battry tests were all fine? what further tests could be done to discover the problem? and do you think having in-dash motorized dvd player can affect the alternator? from my judgment i believe it was the alternator cuz the same thing was happened before but that time my car didnt die completly it did give few signs such as break, abs and battery light, then i had my alternator rebuilt.
so has anyone of you experinced this problem? please help!

 

I would have said alternator, but you said it tested out fine. As for the DVD player causing this, I do not think you have to worry about it.

 

Let me know if it acts up again.

 

thats what I thought, I just got new alternator installed and i hope it doesnt go bad again. do you think battry or alternator cables can go bad and it can cut down the power?
thanks for your input.

 

I should not go bad again afterall its new alternator, but i am still in little fear for it to become defective.

 

retest alternator...pos. did you buy a rebuilt one, or did someone at a dealer rebuild yours? either way, a test at autozone is free.

 

i already bought one from pepboys, and i believe it should work fine for several years.
do you know what can cause the alternator to go bad?

 

I guess it's possible, but not where you live. It would not hurt to make sure that all the connections are on there tight.

 

OC Guy....no I don't know what makes them go bad. Was just offering an additional theory.

 

Check your grounds. I know in my 98 I30 there was a ground strap under the battery box that was corroded and the car would do weird things like crank slow sometimes.

It doesnt hurt to buy an amp wiring kit at walmart and run some 8 guage from the negative battery terminal to various points on the engine, transmission, and body.