99 Dodge Stratus: Battery light Comes On

[sunbeeb]

My wife just bought a 99 Dodge Stratus from a private party. It drove fine while we test-drove it. Now while I was driving today, the battery sign light lit up on the panel. I kept an close eye on the instrument panels as I kept driving: Suddenly all of the gauge seem to die (Gas gauge/temperature gauge) and the panel light was flickering for a very brief moment as if the car was going to die, however, it kept running with no problem. So I parked in a gas station to avoid any stalling in the middle of the road. The picture of the battery was still appearing on the panel as it was parked but the car was running fine. I turned the ignition off, re-started the car and the battery light was gone. I drove back home safely, which was only 4 minutes drive from the gas station. My wife also mentioned that the battery sign did come on the day before when she was driving the same car. <br>br>

None of us are smart enough to figure out any car problems, and before I take it to a shop I would like to know what could be the problem causing the battery light to come on. I am a little scared to drive it to work before I find out what’s happening. If anyone could share his/her knowledge, any kind of feedback is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[don-johnson]

Normally the Bat Light comes on due to it not charging. This happened to our 99 stratus but the belt had been chirping. I thought maybe the belt had broke. After picking up a new belt we dicovered the belt had not broke but upon further cheking it was worn badly. We changed the belt out and everything works fine. They say that if you diconnect the battery while the car is running the car should be able to stay running (if your alternator is working) I would check the belt first and go from there

[sunbeeb]

Thank you for your advise. I will check the belt this weekend.

[dablkqueen1]

I read this somewhere and though it may be helpful...The moment you disconnect either lead from your battery, it's entirely possible you caused thousands of dollars in damage. Here's why...

Your battery does more than just provide electricity. It also shorts AC, spikes and transients to ground. Removing the battery from the circuit allows those spikes and transients to travel around, endangering every semiconductor circuit in your car. The ECU, the speed sensitive steering, the memory seat adjustments, the cruise control, and even the car's stereo.

Even if your computers and stereo remain intact, in a great many cases removing the battery burns out the diodes in the alternator, necessitating a new alternator. If disconnecting the battery interferes with the voltage regulator's control voltage input, it's possible for the alternator voltage to go way over the top (I've heard some say hundreds of volts), frying everything.

Even the initial premise was wrong. If you disconnect the battery and the car conks out, you don't know if it conked out due to insufficient alternator current, or whether the resulting transients caused your ECU (the car's computer, which controls fuel mixture, timing, and much more) to spit out bad data, shutting down the car.

Nobody should EVER run your engine without a battery.