Battery keeps going dead? New alternator! Can't figure it out!?!?!

[Mr. Anderson]

I was having a problem with my battery going dead on me every once in awhile. I notice that while I'm driving and I have my A/C on and I come to a stop the A/C will drop dramatically, and at night my gauges will do very dim as well. So I thought it had to be the alternator. So I replaced it... still did the above mentioned a little bit but I figured that has to be normal since it is drawing more power while these things are on. Last night while I was driving to work, I noticed that it increased really bad and when I got to work, shut the car and tried to restart it again... click click nothing. But it does jump off another battery right away. I don't have anything ridiculous in my car as far as electronics.. just your basic aftermarket stereo (Kenwood deck, (2)RF amps, (2)RFsubs, infinity highs, MP3 player, TV) and I have those indiglo gauges. But even sometimes when the TV is off and driving during the day with just my radio on even without the subs on, it has dies in the past!? It is getting really frustrating.. I can't figure it out. Is there someway that I can test my car to see if it is drawing power even though everything is off? Or do you guys think that the battery that I have isn't good or strong enough!?! PLEASE HELP.... oh yeah... I heard that those underdrive pulleys aren't good for a reason similiar to this.. is that true? If it is.. I'm putting back my stock one! Let me know....Thanks in advance!

[mnhsmatt]

I know u had said that u had your alternator replaced, i was wondering if by chance u knew what the power draw is in your car after putting in the 2 amps, etc....It may be that your alternator isnt putting out enough power to run the car or charge the battery anymore. I know a friend who had this problem it seems odd though that this would happen with the few things u seem to have done. Just a thought.

just as a test though to see, u could try driving for a week, without using the stereo, or any of the electronics u have put into the car and see if the problem occurs again. that would save u paying a mechanic to check the power draw on the car electrical sys. and checking the alternator power output.

[mr.gremlin]

Do you have a capacitor (sometimes called a Lightning Cap) in your sterio setup? I had a similar problem with my sterio drawing too much power while pounding down the road. with my car my lights would actually go out while driving. I also went through an alternator. The lightning cap will store up extra power for the power surges. After I installed the cap, I never had battery or alternator problems again. How many times has your battery drained? How old is it? Too much draining will kill a battery, to the point that it won't be able to hold a charge.
Buy a battery charger so you can monitor the charge level. If your battery has been drained too many times you may need to replace it also. Hope that helps.

[Mr. Anderson]

Yeah... I looked into those caps but honestly I don't really listen to my stereo that loud. Every once in a while but not all the time... and it was dying even with just the deck on and no subs. I bought an everlast battery today instead of those shitty no maintainence batteries. I also picked up new 4ga + and - cables to run. Hopefully this will fix it. I noticed today that when I went to see how long my negative cable was.. the damn thing had no insulation on it for about 7" and it was right there where water could splash up on it in the rain. That can't be too good I would imagine. So we'll see tomorrow...

[AccordCodger]

Couple of comments: Thicker gauge battery cables allow a greater current to flow. So if you are already killing your battery, they will make it more likely. Secondly, rain on the 12v electrics aren't a big deal. If they were, your car would die every time you splash through a deep puddle. But in any case, you're talking about the negative - that's at chassis voltage (grounded when the car is wet), so don't worry about it.

[phoenixitc]

There are a lot of threads that have discussed ad nauseum underdrive pulleys. Most say stay away from underdriving the alternator but going for the others. Unorthodox makes a set with an alternator pulley that has a slight overdrive to compensate the underdriven pulleys on the other locations.
I did pulleys on an 88 Pontiac Firebird and couldn't drive it in bump-n-go traffic. I'm considering the Unorthodox set that includes the new overdrive alternator pulley.

[Mr. Anderson]

Originally Posted by AccordCodger

Couple of comments: Thicker gauge battery cables allow a greater current to flow. So if you are already killing your battery, they will make it more likely. Secondly, rain on the 12v electrics aren't a big deal. If they were, your car would die every time you splash through a deep puddle. But in any case, you're talking about the negative - that's at chassis voltage (grounded when the car is wet), so don't worry about it.

I only got the OEM (4ga) for replacing the wires because I noticed that they looked fairly corroded. Figured since I'm putting the battery in might as well replace the wires that have been in there for eight years. I also noticed that my right headlight was going on and off last night while driving. Gonna check for a short or loose connection there as well. I'll let you know how it goes....