94 bravada battery light blinking

[fishingirl]

Hi everyone. Hope someone can help me out. About 4 days ago I found out I'd left my key in the ignition w/out turning it completely off after putting up my windows before a storm. Next morn. of course the battery was dead. I jumped it off w/neighbors car--no prob's. Later that day at lunch when I started it, it reved way up like it's done so many times in the past when the egr (?) valve was bad. (I've replaced it 3 times) Later it was fine. Anyway, it's been doing o.k. until this weekend when I drove about 3 hrs. Parked for the day and then when cranked it back up it ran very ragged, would surge and cut back, also the check engine light came on. Got to my destination, cut it off for about 5 min's then started it back up and drove to Advance Auto. The service engine light didn't come back on but the tech. at Advance said they couldn't put it on the code machine anyway because it's a 94. I've seen the post here about how to check for the codes but I don't have a clue how to go about doing that. Well, to make a long story longer, today when I was leaving work it would barely start and when it did there was only 1 line showing on the battery dash light, battery light was blinking and it was surging really bad again. So I finally get it home and go get a new battery, installed it, cranked it up w/no prob. but the battery light is still blinking and it's not at 50% on the dash like you would think it would be w/a brand new battery. Anybody have any ideas???? Any and all responses are greatly appreciated.

[Chris Stewart]

Have the alternator checked. It's probably in bad shape trying to keep the old battery charged up.

[ericn1300]

Go back to the place that sold you the battery, they should be able to check the charging system. It's also possible to get a bad battery, happend to me a couple of times over the years.

I buy batteries from a store or warehouse that specializes in batteries like Interstate Battery. They have the expertise and equipment to test your battery and charging systems and they'll install it for free. They also don't add the electrolyte and water to the battery until they sell it, while the stores have theirs added before delivery and it may have sat on the shelf for over a year. Warehouse stores also have blems that are brand new, with a new warranty but a comestic blemish to the labeling or case for under $30 bucks sometimes and they often have 2 year old reconditioned batteries from lease return cars for under $20.

More than you want to know about batteries is here: http://www.batterystuff.com/tutorial_battery.html