WAG03GT

I come home from bein out of town this weekend and its been really cold here in texas the past couple of days. I start my car and begin to drive around, its acting really sluggish and the lights dim and the heater gets stronger when i give it gas along with the lights, and then it gets weaker when i get off the gas. I was just wonderin is this because of the weather or is the pullies that are doin this

HaV

Does it give you any trouble when you start it? Crank for a while or turn right over? It sounds like the alternators about had it to me... I went through many many many of those on my fox and on my ranger and they all acted about the same way.. its like its not charging correctly and your basicaly running off the battery (which wont last very long). Do you know how to use a multimeter? You can do a test with that on the battery to see if the alternator is giving it a charge... I havent had one go out on a newer vehicle though.. so if someone else has any ideas feel free to ignore this [8D]

silver03gt

Well, since the electrical gets stronger when you rev it, your alternator is probably fine, how long was the car sitting for? it's possible the batt. just drained a little, try letting it run with all lights/heater/radio off for like 20 minutes and see if it just needs to be charged back up, anyway, points to the battery from what you say. good luck

WAG03GT

It sat for 2 1/2 days at most. I looked at all the gauges and everything shortly after turning it on and the batt was fine so after that i thought it was the alternator. Its been in the 30s here for 3 days or so and was wonderin if that had anything to with it at all

HaV

Temp shouldnt matter.
Do you have a mulitmeter? If so you can see if its the battery pretty quickly.. Just see what voltage the battery is at while off, then start the car and see what its running. It should be near the same (mabey slightly lower or slightly higher) if the alternator is working fine and giving it a charge. If it dips WAY low, like by a few volts vs off it looks like the alternator is not charging it correctly. And if it goes up a LOT when you get the car started, then you know the alternators giving it a charge and the battery is not holding it, so the battery is probably bad. Thats not completely accurate in telling.. but it should give you a general idea.. or you could just go to wal-mart.. they'll test a battery for ya for free.

rbstang

sounds like alternator is dieing out.

WAG03GT

Noo dont tell me the alternator is bad its freakin 2 years old. Could the pullies be causin this in anyway and if by chance the alternator is goin bad how much does one of those bad boys cost

silver03gt

I don't understand why you guys think it's the alternator, when he gives it gas, the voltage goes up, meaning the alternator is working, if the battery is going he could start it and run for a while until eventually the battery dies, when your running the headlights, radio, heater ect... the alt. doesnt keep up well and the car rely's on the battery much more,( especially with underdrive pully's), Like HAV said, test the batt. voltage with the car off, then with it running,, if the voltage is a lot higher when its running then chances are the battery is on its way

HaV

Oops, didnt see the pullies. Yeah, silver is right it does sound like a battery more then an alt. [sm=youreright.gif]

Either way just try what I said.. it will give you an idea.

WAG03GT

So with the underdrive pulleys its prob the battery instead of the alternator ?