Something fishy goin' on.

[BigDanTheMan]

Ite - 160 3g alternator, proper 4 gauge with 200 amp fuse, optima red top - worked great for two months.

I'm driving home for the weekend and get stuck in traffic for a while. bumper to bumper for at least half an hour. I look at my insturments and i notice my amps are down low - like reading at 11. So i turn off the stereo and watch it for a while, finaly traffic breaks and i'm cruzing at about 2000 rpms; but my amps are slowly dropping. Finally the gauge reads red, but no warning lights turn on, so i pull over to make sure all my connections are made - i'm a little worried that she won't start again, but i didn't want it to loose power on the road either.

everything is fine I get in, start it up - no problem - amps just above red. I'm driving on at 2000 rpms and i get an idea, so i put her in neutral and bring the rpms up to 4k. instantly the gauge jumps up to 13-14. about 15 minutes later it has slowly lowered itself down to just above red again. it doesn't drop any lower then just above red and i make it home ok.

In the garage i hook up the charger. Two hours later i fire her up and find that she's sitting pretty at 11; but won't get higher like she shood. Even when i rev it up to 3k for a few seconds and then to 4k for a sec.

WTF? Tomorrow i'll break out the amp meter and see what's what. I'm figureing it's the alt; but why would it crap out so soon. why was it creating just enough power to keep the car from charging out?

Thanks for reading the essay - what are your thoughts.

[GTStang]

It definetly sounds like the alternator. Also isn't the red top optima not the deep cell 1? Maybe I'm wrong but i think only the yellow is the deep cycle battery. And the deep cycle is the one you want for stereos

[HiFlow5 0]

Yellow top, deep cycle. Good for stereo's and for long life.
Red top, good for cold starts and has an extended reserve capacity of 120 minutes. This is why you were able to drive so long without the car shutting down. If the car starts again, try disconnecting the negative side of the battery, while the car is running. Its the car dies, then the alt is the culprit.

[BigDanTheMan]

The engine died when i popped off the negetive. also the alt was only reading out 11.01 volts regardless of rpms. Man, i love this site - such a wealth of helpfull information. one luv.

[HiFlow5 0]

That really sucks the alt didn't last that long. Hopefully it's still under warranty.

[BigDanTheMan]

eh, don't cry for me - i'll take care of it. Also all optima batteries are considered deep cycle. red just doesn't go as far as the yellow is all. that's what i was told anyway.

[GTStang]

I thought all Optimas were deep cell too. But after I went and looked at them I found out that only the yellow was a deep cycle.
Maybe I'm wrong, next time I'm in the parts store I'll look agian.