Ok, so in the past I've gotten a new battery back in May (A Duralast...I know I know...) and in June I had the dealer replace my Alternator.

Now today, I was driving around town, and on the way home, this happens: The TCS light (The car with the squigly tire tracks) turns on, then the battery light turns on. Performance is not affected though. Then all the dash lights come on, then everything turns off except for the car. No Tach, speedometer, guage lights, but I'm driving fine. Then they all turn on like I just started the car and then everything turns normal. It did it a couple of times on the way home. Then maybe a mile from the house, only the TCS light and Battery light would flicker on. No performance loss. I made it home just fine. Turn off and on the car like usual. But when sitting idling the battery light turns on.

I was hoping I'd get more time from this battery even though it's just a Duralast. But I'm gonna head over to the parts store and spend the money and get a Optima Red Top, unless someone else knows reason to believe that something else is wrong with the car. Everything is stock with my car and it's at about 49,000 miles on it right now (It's a 2006).

The only thing I would think though would be is I have a iPod dock that I leave plugged into the 12v plug on the dash. I didn't think it was enough to drain the battery (I pretty much leave it plugged in all the time) but will definately start to take it out, if I even bother using it anymore.

Any help would be appreciated.

And a question on the Optima Red Top - does it matter what cold cranking amps it is? My Duralast I have in there right now is a 40R-DL 590 Cranking Amps. I have one more year of free replacement if anything, but if it's definately the batter I might as well upgrade to a better one, right?


EDIT:
The car has been sitting for about 15 min. since I got home and posted this. I went out there and started her up. Started just fine, let it idle for 30 sec. Then turned on all the lights, defroster, etc. and let it idle for a few minutes. The battery light never came on or anything. Haven't tried driving her though. Perhaps I'll wait to see if she has a charge in the morning? I don't have any testers or what not to check her out.

 

i have to replace my alternator.....

turn the car on, disconnect the battery, see if the car stays on... if it turns off then its your alternator...

i have a question.... should i replace my alternator with another motorcraft one?
or a optima? or duralast? which one do you guys recommend.

 

check your connections *dont forget to clean the terminals* , and grounds.... if nothing... take your batt. in and have them test it, i also run a duralast red top. works perfectly fine for me... if they say the batt. is good, and all the connections are good... then while your there have them test the alt on the car too (load test).. if still everything comes back good, well take it back to the dealer have them check it......and as for badstangt, really all the basic alt. are made the same and are very close, id suggest trying to find the one with the best warranty....

 

No, no, no. The battery acts sort of like a capacitor to cut down on voltage spikes. If you remove the battery from the circuit, things can fry that were not fried before.

 

+100 Back in the day before we had all these eltronics controling our car we could unhook the battery while the car was running to test out the alternator, but you do that in cars of today and you WILL fry things!!

 

If you don't have one, you can pick up a cheap voltmeter at Radio Shack, start the car and see what the voltage is across the battery. No less than 13.8 no more that 14.7. First check your battery voltage alone. A fully charged battery should read between 12.9 & 13.2 without the car running. Good luck.

 

No way, unless it still has surface charge on it. A fully charged battery should read between 12.6 and 12.7 volts.

To remove any surface charge, turn the engine off. Turn on the headlights for a couple of minutes. Then wait another couple of minutes and take your voltage reading. Or just let the car sit for eight hours or so.

 

k since we havent heard from him he prob fixed it....

 

I HIGHLY doubt its ur battery. Odds are you have a loose connection somewhere

 

Sorry I haven't gotten back to you guys yet. The car has been sitting overnight. Before I called it a night I started up the car and let it idle with the headlights and defroster on for about a minute. Seemed fine.

My voltmeter and load tester are at work so I'll be seeing if I can make the drive over there this morning(only about 8 miles or so), so hopefully nothing will happen on the way in. Will let you guys know what the readings are later today when I get home.

Also, I've since disconnected the iPod dock. I'll leave it disconnected for the time being just to rule out that maybe it was draining the battery or whatever.