car won't start, is it the alternator?

[Fenvy]

Yesterday it was raining a bit in the morning. I drove to work with the lights on (hid, probably drain power a lot faster). When I got to work I forgot to turn it off so of course, by the afternoon, I had no power at all.

I had a coworker jump my car but it was difficult. I think nothing of it because his battery is old and crusty, I asked the owner to rev his engine and I was able to start the car. I drove home to eat lunch and about 2 hours later I am not able to start the car again and the power is diminishing (hard to roll up/down window). Tried to jump the car again and it won't start. I hear repeated "clicks" (is that ignitor chip?) but seems like there isn't enouhg power to turn the starter.

1) I am guessing it's the alternator? 2) will draining power completely (like leaving your lights on) has an impact on alternator?

[Graphfixz]

I will have to guess it is not the alternator. Your car would have died on the way to your home if the alternator was shot. The one thing that kept the car running was the alternator.

Once you got home and turned it off the battery needed to supply the power to start the car... however, it is still dead... hence it didn't start again.

Get your battery checked.

[rico05]

What he said. The car doesn't use the alternator to start. That is all battery buddy. No less cheap than an alty, but WAY easier to install

I want HIDs Lucky bastard.

[Fenvy]

the battery is less than 1 year old, it's the wesco small battery

if it is indeed the battery like you guys said then how come it won't crank when I have the car jumped?

[Graphfixz]

because of the battery itself. The fact that your car did start when the other guy reved up his engine just makes me think that it is your battery.

get it checked. If it is that old/young get a refund!!!

if at the end of the day you still have the same problem then we can at least eliminate the battery!

[benemorius]

Sounds like the battery just needs charging, though it's possible that you damaged the alternator by letting it try to charge a dead battery. Get the battery on a good charger and see what happens in the morning.

[Fenvy]

surely enough, it's the battery, however, the battery is rated at 450cca after 45 min of quick charger at autozone only got about 310cca, shodul I be concerned?

[benemorius]

Quick charger = no no.

I'm not entirely familiar with numbers, but I know what's good for a battery and what's not. Deep discharging a battery followed by rapid charging is not considered a good thing. Until you determine whether those numbers should be cause for concern, I'd just use it and see how it turns out. I'm not saying that it might be dead, but doing what you did to it generally tends to shorten it's usable life. That's all.

[BomexS13]

I have Optima RedTop in my car and it drained that mofo...i have a short somewhere thats draining the battery.

[Atomic-S14]

when i parked my car on the street for more than 4 month with out starting it every month, the battery died. and i had the same signs that you were having. got a new battery and now everything is fine.but i noticed that my rpm idles at way below 1000 -_- is that a problem? it stays at like 0.6 rpm.

[The 240 kid]

Shouldn't be a problem for starting. It's not really a problem unless the car won't take off after an intersection or stumbles for a second and goes.