stupidgenius36

A little backstory...about a week ago, I started hearing a slight whine from the engine bay. I could only hear it around 1,000 rpms when under 20 mph. I couldn't figure out where it was coming from, so I figured it was time to save some money and have it checked out or wait and see if it got worse. Well I guess it got worse today...

I was sitting in a drive thru today, and my battery started dying. I turned everything off, and revved a little bit and that kept it from dying. Everything is fine while I'm driving. I can have the Shaker 1000 bumpin and everything, and it's just fine until I come to a stop light. If I sit at a light with the shaker on, the volts will slowly start dropping. Rolling up the windows will drop em real quick, but a quick rev will bring the volts back up. The lowest I saw them drop to was 10 volts, before I brought it back up.

Also I let the car sit there for about an hour. When I left it, the volts were at 12.2v. After I came back and tried to start it an hour later, it started up pretty good with only one key turn. I let it idle for about one minute, and the volts went up to 13.5 and stayed there. So I'm not sure if it's the alternator or the battery. I've had the car for a little over 5 years with the same battery. Also after having the car for about 2 years, I had one alternator die on me. What do yall think it is? I'm about to head over to Oreilly's and have 'em test electrical stuff, and see what they say.

stupidgenius36

It's the alternator. "Bad diode". Awesome...there's $200 wasted. Well any theories as to why my alternators only last 2 years? I listen to the Shaker 1000 really loud almost everytime I'm in the car. Could that be putting too much stress on the alternator? I had him go ahead and look up the price for an alternator and he mentioned it was 135 amps. How many amps is the stock alternator?

karman

You are not the first one with a low mileage failure.
I doubt it was anything you did.
Near as I can tell, it only happens to a small percentage.
I guess you are just one of the unlucky ones.
My sympathies.

stupidgenius36

I don't know if it's related to the alternator that I replaced, but now I have a new problem. When I stomp on the gas, my message center tells me to "Check Traction Control" and the "ABS" light comes on and the voltage spikes (I don't know if that's due to the TC or ABS trying to kick in, or what?). That's even with the traction control turned off. I thought maybe a sensor is goin' bad? Any ideas? I guess it's time to get her checked out again.

stupidgenius36

Another update...I did some driving to see if I could figure out exactly what was causing it. Everything is fine, whether it's floored or half throttle, until 5,000 rpms. Apparently flooring it in "Drive" goes through 5K fast enough for it to just throw the "check TC" and "ABS", before it shifts and goes back below 5K. So I tried shifting it myself and taking it a little easier on the throttle. At exactly 5K it went ape-sh*t as said above, but in the delayed shift (from shifting manually, instead of being in Drive) it did a little more than mentioned above. The "check TC" and "ABS" went away, and the Airbag light came on briefly...Then the rpms and the volts started waning. I tried to give it a little gas to keep things going, but then the whole gauge cluster went dead. I thought the car was gonna die, but it never did. The gauge cluster was only dead for a few seconds, then everything went back to normal. What could cause this? And why at 5K? Help!

stupidgenius36

Well just an update...I replaced the alternator (again) as well as the battery, and all is well again.