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Recently I thought my ancient running off duck-tape $400 1998 Nissan Altima had a bad alternator, but I hadn't yet had it replaced. Someone here suggested checking the belts, I was skeptical, after all Autozone tested the alternator and found it faulty. Over the weekend my belts broke off, I had to have a mobile mechanic come out to reattach them. Wouldn't you know it, my alternator is now working fine.
And while it does not necessarily happen, running a car with no battery connected can cause thousands of dollars of damage to electronic components.
Don in Austin
Why? Theoretically it should cause no problems. Things may not work correctly do to drops in voltage under load and slow speed. . But damage is mostly caused by voltage spikes. See no reason why voltage spikes occur from no or weak battery.
Not suggesting it is a good thing to do. But I don't see a reason why it causes damage.
Get a cheap ohm meter from walmart or sears.
Test the battery and alternator.
Car off ,battery 100 percent will read 12.6.
Partial capacity 12.3-12.4(Will give problems in cold weather)
12.2 and under,usually not enough capacity to start vehicle.
12 and under-Battery shot.
Car on,volts should be 14 or higher.
Under load(a/c,lights,wipers,radio,flasher and anything else electrical )
13.6
If it drops below 13 the alternator is shot.
Another test you can do is an amperage test to see if there is any parasitic draw killing the battery.
Here's a good vid from Eric the Car Guy.
Really? You should tell this to all the high rpm drag racers that don't run alternators. Or maybe it was sheer luck I was able to once drive 80 miles on the interstate trying to make it home and the alternator wasn't charging.
Probably the battery. Over the summer my alternator went out and the car wouldn't start after the alternator was changed. Old alternator essentially KILLED a 3 year old battery in a Saab 9-3. So batteries can be sensitive sometimes.
You kinda messed that part up. Once the vehicle is running the alternator provides power to the electrical system, not the battery. You can run a car all day once it's started, without the battery... but you can't do the same without an alternator.
To the OP - Chances are the alternator is the problem... hence your vehicle running fine once it's piggy-backing off of the other car's charging system. I'm sure the battery took a beating though so you'll probably need a new one of those too.
So I know this thread is ancient but I’ve seen more than one Chrysler product do this even with a working alternator. Just won’t stay running with a dead battery.
I'm having this same problem it won't start unless it's hooked up to Jumper cables then dies once I unhook the Jumper cables an also if I don't have any Jumper cables hooked up to it my lights won't work nothing works I cant open my trunk or roll windows up or down it won't even ding or turn over if there's no cables hooked up Theo it from another vehicle I just replaced alternater on the oh battery less than a year ago so I figured one went bad already but witch one
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