Hey, I just registered, so go easy on me

So I just purchased a used, 1995 Ford Mustang, 3.8 V6, Base. Most everything on it seems to run pretty well, except something is draining my battery really fast. I just bought a new battery for it two days after I bought the car, and while driving it, the battery died. I got it jumped, took it home, and when to an auto shop where I bought two new battery terminal clamps, which I already installed, and took out my alternator to get it tested. Now, it tested fine in the shop, it passed everything. Then I had it tested in the car, and it was only putting out 13 volts. Now, I'm not sure if thats the problem or not. I don't use A/C, or my radio/cd player, but I can't figure out what it could be. The battery just won't charge at all while its driving. It dies in less then an hour.

Anyone know what the problems could be, and if I can fix them at home, or if I'll have to take it to a shop and get raped out of a lot of money.

Thanks!

 

You could have a bad battery, I know its brand new but it could happen; also I would take the alt. somewhere else and have it tested again (just to make good and sure) as I dont want you to start spending alot of money trying to fix the problem. You could have a ground issue somewhere ( I would look at the alt cable, and the battery terminal cables too...Ive never had a battery problem with mine before and I use the A/C (I live in Cali and its gets hot here in the summer) and I have upgraded radio and speakers (nothing out of control) and havent had a problem...hope this helps some. Let us know what u find out.

Matthew

 

Okay. I'm going back to autozone tomorrow so I'll take my battery and see if I can exchange it or something. I'm not sure what you mean by a bad ground wire, but I'll look into that. When I changed my battery terminal clamps, I had to cut back the wires on both ends. The negative cable looked pretty ****ty, as though there was a lot of sulfuric acid build up in it, but I didn't cut too far down, since I don't know how difficult it is to change out wire.

 

If your alternator was only putting out 13 volts it's not working properly. When you are driving the ignition and fuel injection system is putting more of a demand on it than it can keep up with.

 

How many volts should it be putting out exactly?

 

You can get by with as little as 13.5-13.8 but 14.4 would be optimum.