battery or more??

[markdifferent]

heres a brief history of what happened. in july while jump startign a friends car on the drive home all my lights went dim and the motor shut off when i pulled into my driveway. well i thought it was the alternator, but had s it tested and it was fine. so i bought a new battery. well last night it happened again. this time on the freeway. i got a new one and put it in and it seems to be fine, but i didnt hook up my stereo amp this time. so hopefully i get more then 4 months of life out of it. the only thing i did yesterday that may have caused a problem was i was flushing the heatercore and radiator. could i have gotton somehtign wet, is it the stereo, or maybe i just got a bad battery?

 

[silversup]

Check to make sure your connections r tight. If it kills another battery, its either your alternator, you need a CAP for your stereo or a higher capacity battery.

 

[markdifferent]

thanks. i am sure that the connections are tight, and also i didnt hook back the stereo amp. i drove it today and no problem, however one time i had to accelerate in a hurry, and when i punched the gas i saw the battery meter move. this caught my eye, and after that i noticed each time i use a turn signal the battery meter moves like a little heartbeat. is it normal for the battery gayge to move like that or when the windows go up or down, when i say ot moves, its not much but you can see it flutter. thanks

 

[silversup]

No it really shouldn't move that much. But here are some experiences I had:

My mr2 - When I would be coming to a stop, as the idle would drop the battery light would flicker. But when driving normally, would be fine. After about a year of that, my alt died.

My supra's lights dim a lil bit during idle when its warm outside. Everything is still working fine though. (Running a system tho)

In your case I would say first, maybe one of you grounds is bad. If not that, sooner or later, you alt is going to bite the dust. Make sure your system is not putting a strain on the electrical system. My buddy is running a 1000 watt kenwood powering two kicker subs. His battery kept dying until he got an capacitor. If you are not running anything that serious, you are fine. Especially because I run 2 subs n my cars.

If you do chose to get an alt, get one from toyota. You will only replace it once for the next 10 years. Gotta love em.

 

[markdifferent]

thanks, i am going to look into another alternator today, found one for 100 bucks with a llw. the stereo amp is 300 watts, other then that i dont have anything different from stock set up.

 

[silversup]

Sounds good write in if you have any additional problems

 

[Kmvreter]

Alternator issue gets my vote.

 

[T4R4ME]

You're right mark, that does sound similar to my issue. Except I get about a year out of most batteries. Keep me posted if you find out anything for sure, I'll do the same.
Good luck!!!

 

[markdifferent]

well here is what happened now. my 4runner quit again, just 2 days after the new battery. so i decided to put the alternator in. after i put it in i could see the difference in the battery meter on the dash, and i also hooked up my amp again. the only concern i have is that the signal lights when on cause the battery gauge to flutter a little. is that normal? i have always thought the 3 things that cause no power are battery alternator, and voltage regulator. now if i understand correct the voltage reg is built into the laternator that i have for my model. so this should solve my problems, but i will let you knwo in a week if i am still good to go.

 

[markdifferent]

well all is still well today with the new alternator, although the position of the battery meter changes after about 10 min. is it normal for it to go up like that> i will post a pic so you can see where it is at each time. and i will also post a vid clip of the flutter when the turn signal is on.

 

[fourwd1]

It is common for the voltmeter to fluctuate with the turn signal when you're stopped for a turn. At idle RPM the alt output is less, and if you have an auto tranny the RPMs will be lower to begin with. At night it would be even worse, cause your lights are on creating bigger load on the alt.