hafamaZing

my car recently died on me, but that was due to a bad voltage regulater in the alternator, it killed my battery, so i put in a new alternator and used the warranty on the battery to just get a brand new one. i replaced both things yet my battery light still comes on and off at random times, and i get a ground loop in my speakers through the cd player. it killed my battery again while sitting in a mcdonalds drive through, my gauges fell to the left and the lights dimmed and the abs light came on. whats the deal? i cant find a short or anything wrong???

0949er

sounds to me like its a short of some kind... have you done any electrical work recently? Added a stero or anything along those lines?

since you are hearing the ground loop hum, I would start around the radio and work out. (although it could be completely un-related.) A ground loop hum will be caused when something is discharging power from its source to the ground. (so think uncovered spliced wire on frame, etc, since the frame of the car is essentially your ground)

hafamaZing

i put two subs in but ive had those in for about a year. i pulled the fuse for about a week and it still continued to discharge the battery. i got a new motor last march, but i dont know why a short would show up nearly a year later

0949er

well just wear and tare of the car "can" cause something to shift out of place.

Anyways, you are 100% sure it still does it with the AMP completely disconnected from your power source? That will at least move us to something else.

What about the new engine? who installed it? what happend to change it out? is it possible they are related?

Its gonna be hard pinpointing this one w/out some kind of direction.

*edit*

and you said your car died w/ the gauges in the McDonalds drive thru? Was the car running? Cuz then that would be the alternators fault

hafamaZing

yeah. i had a shop do it. is it possible a new alternator could fail like that? i installed it correctly. the car did die while it was running. the lights would dim out while i was driving but if i got into it a little bit they would brighten up, but the battery light still remained on. pulling the fuse from the power wire to my amp disconnected it from all power sources, yet it still shown the battery light. i checked the ground wire from the battery to the block and it is tight on both connections

0949er

I mean anythings possible. But it would be rare. But that would be the only thing I could really think of that would cause the car to "die" the way it did.

Did it die with both a new battery AND new alternator? Do you have an autozone or somewhere out in texas that can check your battery+alternator by putting loads on them and stuff? I would strongly recommend that.

hafamaZing

yeah autozone test it the first time told me the alt was bad, so i bought one through them, and exchanged batteries the same day. so they are BOTH brand new. i had them test it again once i put it on there and they said everything passed a load test. and the reg and diodes are good as well. im going to juice the battery up, and remove the system from my car, and see where it goes from there. its still at a mcdonalds so i cant exactly get started right away, but ill keep you posted on whats going on. i appreciate the help man

hafamaZing

ok so i got it running, took the system out, and for about five minutes it ran without the light coming on. i turned my lights on and shortly after it came on, i shut them off and it stayed on from that point. i dont know if it would have come on regardless, cause i see no bare wire or anything around the headlights. i figure a fuse would have blown if something was shorted. where could my battery power be going??