My car died in the middle of the high way. Need help ASAP Please.

[sXi]

yeah.. that sucked. I drove 50 somethign miles to my friends house today, it was all fine. no problem. the car stayed there for about 7 hours.so, I got into my car, drove it home. here is what all started. I was on the car for 20 minutes. it was all fine. then I hit the traffic on the high way. I noticed my cluster light were going dimmer and dimmer. Car slowed down, try to to give it little more gas. No power at all. then it Jerked and jerked. finally it stop completely and could not start the car whatsoever. And I was in the middle of the high way. tow truck came.. and my car is at one of the huge parking lot now. I guess it will be fine for the night.

what i am thinking is the battery is dead? but it's a new battery. I put it in a week ago. every electronic on the car isn't working. no crank, no headlight, notthing. except the clock is still on.

guys, Please help me. I am 50 miles away from home. I am staying in my friends house for the night.

what the helll is wrong with my car?! it's 93 240sx

[karmakaze]

bad connection, or its your alternator. sounds like your battery isn't getting a charge. get a volt meter and see how much its putting out.

[SeVa-S13]

I'm going for alternator...

[themadscientist]

r went, you were running you car off the battery. The lights going dimmer as you ran out of juice and the bucking as the progressivly weaker spark getting blown out. Bad alternator and you likely killed you new battery too.

[doohopark]

yup alternator went dead same thing happened to me the other day, got a alternator from auto zone, life time warrenty on those suckers so when (not if) it breaks take it back for a new one.

[komete]

4rth or 5th vote for altinator. My s14 car has 130k on it. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to go ahead and change it. hrmmmm

[PalmerWMD]

Same thing happened on my S13.

Alternator.Took out a new battery in the process.

For some strange reason Alternator kept testing good, it when replaced by new -problem solved.

[97ka-t]

Again, same thing happened to me, but I had a $175 Optima Yellow Top that survived my alternator dying.. No new battery for me!

[vvaffle]

This thread reminds me to get AAA before something on my car breaks so I don't have to pay for rediculous towing charges.

[Gold Digger]

And the general Consensus says...Alternator...be sure you replace your battery again, don't try to charge a dead battery on a new alternator...you have problems...I learned that the hard way

[ricebike]

hopefully, u still got the receipt for the battery; exchange under warranty for free!

[lonelywanderer]

yup, same thing happened to me. good thing i get warranty on my battery after the alternator killed it....

[ILikeMy240sx]

recharge your battery and get a new alternator...

[MinisterofDOOM]

Yeah, another vote for dead alternator. Make sure you get a new battery or recharge your current one before you run the car with the new alternator.

Same thing happened on my S13.

Alternator.Took out a new battery in the process.

For some strange reason Alternator kept testing good, it when replaced by new -problem solved.

Thats's happened to me two different times. Alternator wouldn't run the car, but tested fine.

[nismo521]

Thats's happened to me two different times. Alternator wouldn't run the car, but tested fine.

I had the same thing happen on my truck. It turned out to be that the voltage regulator in the alternator had gone bad. At idle and low RPM it was fine, but at higher RPMs the voltage was bad and it would cause the truck to die. The crazy part was that a voltage regulator was like $250, but a rebuilt alternator w/ a voltage regulator already in it was $150

[Eikon]

Lights going dim are clearly a sign that you are low on blinker fluid.

The jerking is most likely a sign of a bad muffler belt.

seriously though... I bet it's the wire to the alternator. Probably that little plastic protector is melted and that's causing a bad connection. I bet your mechanic can use some kind of O ring to fix it.
Modified by Eikon at 3:25 PM 10/4/2005

[Scooby24]

Alternator for the win!

[sXi]

here is the end of story after i towed the car to the shop.

they check the alternator. it's working fine. recharged the battery. then they found out that the wire that goes to the alternator. not the ground one. I think it's the one that charges the battery. that wire isn't getting good connection because the plastic thing that prevents the wire touches the alternator body is melted.

so, the mechanic put a ring injector o-ring i believe in between. now it charges. and works fine for the time being.

should i replace a new alternator anyway?

[dickie]

if it runs fine then why would you?