electrical problem 98 Grand Am - please help!

[notafreak]

This morning the battery light lit up on the dash (but car was running fine). The longer I drove, the more lights came on (air bag, ABS, check engine, oil, etc). Once most lights were lit up, radio lost all power, then dash light went black, blinkers did not work, all gauges did not work...eventually car died. My husband thought it was the alternator. He replaced the alternator and then was able to drive about 20 miles before the same thing happened again. Car is now dead once again......one more thing that may help to diagnose is that for about 6 mos or so, we have noticed when coming up to a stop, lights would fade in and out and there was a "clicking noise". When this problem occurred today, I noticed the "clicking" had stopped (but more severe problems took it's place). Any suggestions of what may be wrong?

[rpm4kt]

If the altinator whent bad and you replaced it the old one could have drained the battery down to nothing which it will not hold a charge thats the first thing i would check and clean the terminals . but deffinatly check the charge. RPM

[xeroinfinity]

Yeah sounds like a bad battery from the begining.

And along with what RPM said, have the engine grounds checked out and battery connections, make sure they are all clean and tight .

This can be the cause of the dimming lights, other then a battery failure.

good luck and Welcome to AF.

[notafreak]

Thank you for the responses. Turns out the "new" alternator was bad....so now have new battery and 2nd new alternator and car is again running good!!