Burrosito

Hey guys, wondering if anyone could shed some light with advice on my problem I'm starting to have.

To start, here is what I've got. 2006 BONE STOCK 4.6L V8, Manual, 58K miles on her. I service her every 5k miles.

To this day, (I bought her in 2007 Used with 15k miles on the dial) I've brought it to the dealership for 2 Alternators, A Battery, Battery Cables, and Dash Cluster. Both times the alternators weren't charging my battery, and everything ended up dying while I was on the way.

This is currently what's happening. When I start her up, the first crank of the starter seems about a 1/4 of a sec. hesitant before turning over the engine. As if she is struggling for power to turn over. It's usually that first crank just before it turns the engine over. Never did that before. It's kind of hard to explain, hopefully you guys get the picture.

The only other thing I've noticed is that after I start it, my odometer is up instead of my tripometer. I always have it on the tripometer and only notice the odometer come up instead when I have disconnected power. This has started happening at the same time I noticed the start up issue. I'm wondering if I'm losing power somewhere?

Is it possible the alternator is going again? I've had the dealership replace it both times before (after they told me that was the problem back then) and I'm wondering if they used a lower cranking/power one. Had them do it since it's only $75 copay.

I figure if it's alternator again, I'll do it myself. What's a good alternator in terms of part number/cranking amps for a stock GT? Tomorrow at work I'll put a voltmeter on the battery to see if it's getting charged by the alternator.

Any input would be great.

Burrosito

Left in a hurry ealier - A little bit more info:

I was using an adapter to play my iPod - one of those transmitters that plugs into your cigarette lighter. I only plugged it in while driving though, and when the car was off, I unplugged it. Today I'm going to stop using it just to see if it helps.

I ran a few errands today. This morning it did the very slight but hesitant start. Same thing around noon when I took off from work. And between 1 and 3:45 I stopped and started it probably 6 or so times running some errands. Each start was normal and same with the tripometer/odometer display. Nothing out of the ordinary.

It HAS been raining a lot here lately though. So I'm going to check the carpet area on the passenger side. Hopefully that's dry.

Other than that, a few times I've noticed the RPM's drop to around 500 or just a hair below when I'm coming to a stop. Sometimes the car will slightly hesitate and then resume idle at 750. Lately with the heat I've been running the A/C on though. If that helps with diagnosing.