speedkills

This has been a stressful week with finals and all. So tonight I thought that I would take my car for a spin since I had nothing to do and no finals tomorrow.

So I drove it about a mile to fill it up with gas and than got onto a 4 lane road to cruise a little bit. Got about one mile and the car died. It went from being fine (cruising, jamming out to music, etc) to completely dead within about 100 yards. I came to a stop in a left hand turn lane. I tried to start the car but got nothing. No ticking, no lights, no nothing. So I call my buddy to pull his car behind mine since I had no lights and it was dark out. Next I called a tow truck and got it towed about 1/2 mile to a parking lot by my dorm. Got some jumper cables, hooked them up, and it started right up.

Anyway I am going home (NC to MD) on Thursday and really don't want to be stuck somewhere in Virginia with a dead car. So anyone got any idea what could be wrong with my car???


Cliffs: Car died in middle of road for no apparent reason. Got it towed to parking lot. Jump it and it starts right up. Why?

Thanks

xxDerek

Battery or alternator, most likely battery

onewheat

How is your battery now? If your alternator is not charging (or charging well) , you could run your battery all the way down and the car would die - especially if your stereo is drawing a lot of power, headlights on etc. Battery goes dead, no power from alternator and then no power for the ignition either - dead. What happened after it was jump started?

speedkills

Thanks for the fast replies

After I jump started it I let it run for about 10 minutes. The battery gauge was reading a little past half way. I realize now that I was stupid and should have let it run and then try and start it again, but I didn't. I will try that in the morning. FWIW The guy who towed my car said he thought it was the alternator.

Rockwell28

I would think moreso alternator that happened with one of my cars back in 2000 and it turned out to be the alternator bc once its running down the road a dead battery want cause it to shut down in motion it would never start with a dead battery. Another possibility the same happened to another one of my cars in 2004 and the computer/ecu actually crashed 97ponitiac gp gtp. so get your alternator tested to start with.

chaos98

make sure to check the cables to the battery. corrosion, loose etc. prob still battery, but always start with the basics

Blk003GT

Start the car un hook the battery if the car keeps running alternator is ok if it dies alt is bad...

speedkills

Well I got some good news guys. Went to start the car on Wednesday and it started right up. Just drove it the 400+ miles home from NC to MD without a hiccup.

Thanks for the help everyone and now that I have the tools and the time I will start to look into why it randomly died the other night.