Is my alternator or my battery bad?
LewBaby
10-31-2016, 10:10 PM
My apologies... Being new to this forum I guess I ended up in the Chevy Blazer area instead of the Saturn area. I have re-posted this in the Saturn area.
All of a sudden, yesterday morning my battery was dead. I don't know if the problem is the battery can't hold a charge or the alternator is not charging it. I brought it to Sears Auto to check it out, but they told me they had to put in a new battery (which I had to buy) before they could check the charging system. And if it turns out to be the alternator, I just spent a fair amount of money on a battery that was not needed.
Thinking logically, since the car drives fine once it is started I am guessing that the alternator is working properly and producing enough juice to run the car and whatever load is being produced. After jump starting it, I drove it approx. 10 miles to Sears and then 10 miles home.
Am I looking at this correctly or could the car drive with a dead battery and a bad alternator? I'm planning on taking it to Firestone tomorrow to see what they say. I hate to say this, but I am so untrusting of auto repair places!
FYI... this is for a 2003 Saturn Vue, manual transmission, 4 cyl engine.
Please give me some thoughts.
All of a sudden, yesterday morning my battery was dead. I don't know if the problem is the battery can't hold a charge or the alternator is not charging it. I brought it to Sears Auto to check it out, but they told me they had to put in a new battery (which I had to buy) before they could check the charging system. And if it turns out to be the alternator, I just spent a fair amount of money on a battery that was not needed.
Thinking logically, since the car drives fine once it is started I am guessing that the alternator is working properly and producing enough juice to run the car and whatever load is being produced. After jump starting it, I drove it approx. 10 miles to Sears and then 10 miles home.
Am I looking at this correctly or could the car drive with a dead battery and a bad alternator? I'm planning on taking it to Firestone tomorrow to see what they say. I hate to say this, but I am so untrusting of auto repair places!
FYI... this is for a 2003 Saturn Vue, manual transmission, 4 cyl engine.
Please give me some thoughts.
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