Alternator Busted Due To Aftermarket Fog Lights?!

[Clatch]

Ok, I left my aftermarket fog lights on and it drained my battery naturally. So of course I go to jump it with my other car a Toyota Avalon. When I jump it, the car just makes a vacuum noise and a strong smell of gas is present. Then I attempt to start the car with one of those portable jumpstarter things and it turns over, but immediatly dies after I remove the booster cables. Now this sounds like the alternator is dead, but it died from accidentally leaving the fog lights on?!

P.S. I have my fog lights 12vt power running directly to the battery so they can have power at all times, could this have done it? Seriously I didn't think accidenatlly leaving my fog lights on would kill my alternator.

[benemorius]

Your alternator shouldn't be dead yet, but you can easily kill it if you, like most others, do not know what you're doing. Disconnect your battery and remove it completely, then try to jump your car again. There's no reason it should die this time when you remove the jumper. If that's the case, see if you can charge your battery, BUT NOT WITH YOUR CAR. Use a battery charger. You may just have a very very dead battery, or a battery that will need to be replaced. Charging such a dead battery with a car can kill an alternator. It's the same concept as running a stereo system that draws too much current.

[Clatch]

So your talking about completely removing my battery, and then putting it back in and trying to jumpstart it? Otherwise how on earth would I jumpstart the car without the battery. Also I charged up the battery in the car and it started up on its own but died a couple blocks down the street.

The car is already up at the shop getting a new alternator because the mechanic hooked up a snap-on battery charger with an LCD screen that read some numbers and then promptly told me that I'm not getting any charge and the alternator is shot.

So what is your take on it now?

EDIT: Hit me up on aim anytime today before 1:32, screename: ClatchGTR to describe it better, it would be nice to save $271. Yet I don't know how I am going to stop them if they already started removing the alternator.
Modified by Clatch at 5:04 PM 11/17/2004

[benemorius]

No. I meant leave the battery out of the car entirely. A car does not need a battery to run. You would just connect whatever you're using to jump it to the battery connectors.

When you say you charged the battery in the car, do you mean you used a battery charger to charge it or you let the running engine charge it?

If you charged it with the engine, then it is most likely that this act killed the alternator.

If you charged it with a charger, then it is probable that the battery was so damaged that it drew too much current while you were driving it and killed the alternator.

At any rate, the alternator could have been saved had the proper precautions been taken. It is always wise to charge and test a battery out of the car anytime it has been completely drained for the sake of the alternator.

There is also a chance that the alternator may yet be good, and the battery was so damaged that it did not allow an accurate reading when the mechanic was checking the voltage. I recommend you ask him to bench test the alternator once it is removed, and test your battery outside the vehicle as well. From what I've heard, your battery sounds toast.

[Clatch]

I ended up being to late and they already installed it, yet my battery is completly fine. I think, and the mechanic thinks that eitheir I or AAA fried the alternator when the car was jumped. Although both times the car was jumped it went text book and nothing seemed out of place.