Mustang795

Not so great with all the car stuff, which is why I come here. Hopefully you will be able to help me. Ok so I own a 2002 Mustang V6 with relatively low miles, it has a little over 56,000. Recently when it started getting cold up here (like 25 degrees) the car has started having a couple problems. Generally from experience this car turns over smooth and quick, which is obviously good. A couple weeks ago I wasn't using the car that frequently in this cold weather, but when I went to start it, it took a couple seconds longer to turn over, finally turned over stopped and sputtered a little but than turned on and stayed on strong (this is after not being used for a bout a week). Same thing happened the other night, hadn't been used for about a week. Except once it turned on, before it got itself to Idle all the gauges were flickering a little and so were the headlights. Once it got itself to idle it was fine.
Also there has been a little bit of a whine to the engine, not like really loud, but enough to notice. I had one guy already tell me that he thinks it would be a good idea to replace the alternator and get it a fresh battery (because I have no Idea how old the current one is). I wanted a second opinion though. And if it is the alternator how long do I have before it will go?

BabyGT

Drive it to local advance or autozone, or whatever big name auto part store you have close by and have them test your alt and battery, should be free, and those diagnoses are pretty sound for the symptoms, I would lean more towards the battery myself.
Sounds like its not holding a charge.

Still, might as well get it tested for free to make sure before you spend the money on a part you don't need and have to buy the other.

petrock

I second it being the battery. The battery is what starts the car. If you have a volt-meter or multi-meter handy, check the batteries voltage. It should be between 12.4 & 12.8 volts. Any lower, and stick a battery charger on it. If it doesn’t hold that charge then the battery is bad. If it does, and it still doesn’t start the car, take it to your local auto parts store and have them load test it. It may have enough voltage, but not enough amps. Good luck...

BabyGT

See the thing with that is checking at home like that just shows that the battery is dying, it doesn't point out why. That still could mean the alt is not charging properly and the car is draining the battery, might as well go have both tested.

LilRoush

I agree it's a battery/alt combo. The whining you hear could be the alt starting to give out....especially if you have starting/charging issues now that it's colder up there.

Get it to your local parts store to have both checked out and go from there. Luckily, neither are hard to replace and not too expensive.

Mustang795

Ok thank you everyone I will go get the battery and alternator checked out and update you. And Lilroush you have the car I have always wanted a 1970 Mach 1, how is that car? Those are sooo nice!!

Mustang795

Ok so I brought it to autozone. The alternator is fine and working good, but he thinks the battery is the original from 10 years ago. He said it had an 85% charge, and has 270 amps out of 540. He also said he thought the alternator whine was due to it working harder to charge the bad battery. Thanks again everyone!!!

TomKat

good glad to hear it was just the battery

BabyGT

Your very welcome!

Mustang795

Yeah thought I would really update you guys! You know that awesome feeling when your excited to finally leave, so you hop in your car as fast as you can and go to start it, and it just makes a funny noise but doesn't start at all. Yeah I felt that awesome feeling today. I needed a jump start, so the battery was for sure the culprite. Thanks again guys!!