Doesn't a car work if the alternator was gone?

[Ryan Heo]

Hi.My 96' I30 was stopped on traffic this evening because the engine was turned off. It was tow at home. I checked the battery first because there was low battery sign. The battery was 4.5V ~ 5V, so it was charged for 30 min. After that I set the batter on the car. The car was starting as normal but it was gone again 1 minute later. So what I thinking is the alternator should be gone. Am I right? What is another possibilities? Unfortunately the alternator was bought on ebay a month ago. It still has a warranty. If the alternator is bad, I will contact on the company. So I would like to make sure what's wrong?Thanks.

[jltibbs]

sounds about right to me. the only way to really tell is go get another battery and then have the alternator tested. figure that out and let us know what you come up with.

[D_roc]

yea sounds like it try this check the battery power with the engine off and then with the engine on if its low then yea bad alternator

[TakedaT]

Could also be a dirty or loose connection somewhere. I had the same problem with my altima a while back. It turned out to be that the terminal connector was defective and would lose contact with the positive of the battery. It drove me nuts. I changed my battery, then my alternator to find out that all i had to do was replace the terminal connector. The car would just shut off in the middle of driving. What made me finally figure it out was the last time it did it, I had just hit a big pothole. I open the hood, push the metal connector into the plastic piece, and voila. To temporarily fix it, I just used a bit of duct tape to hold the metal piece in place until i replaced it.

[Ryan Heo]

I contacted the alternator company. They will send the new one to me.When I install the new one, the battery also will be replaced.Thanks.

[mudwieser]

what ebay company did you buy it from becuase I was literally just looking at one on ebay? was a re-maned one ?

thanks Adam

[Ryan Heo]

Can I say the specific company name in here?Actually they are very kind and gave a reasonable price.It was also good stuff. When I got an alternator from a local shop first time, it made strange noisy. So it was replace this one which was bought on ebay. You know what I mean. Can you let me know your e-mail address? I will send it to you.Thanks.