Herbal Chicken

Here's my problem. A couple of days ago when driving I would be cruising along and suddenly my gauges would all turn off and on real quick, sometimes long enough to turn off the radio. A couple of times whenever the car was in the parking lot it would die out completely then I would have to re-crank it.

This morning whenever I was sitting in the parking lot letting it warm up it did it again. So I crank it again and it wants to die. I give it some gas for a couple of seconds then let off so it could drop back to idle and it dies. Right after that the car is completely dead. No lights come on whenever I turn the key. No electric door locks. Nothing.

My first thought was that it had to be the alternator or the battery. This evening I jump started it. Even that didn't go normally. I waited a few minutes with the cables connected, turned the key a few times. Nothing, nothing, nothing. Keep trying then suddenly, it just cranks up like normal. I decide to disconnect the battery to see if it kept charge. It died out a few minutes later and was devoid of power like before. I jump start it again (with the same problem as before), and disconnect the battery. This time it ran for about 10 minutes with the fan, lights, and radio all on.

Another thing is that the idle is not right either. It seems to idle about 150 rpms low and whenever I give it a little gas and let off it wants to die out. It's like it falls below where the idle is set and tries to get back to where it's supposed to be. After a little working the gas it will idle again, but it didn't do that before.

I'm frustrated now and am not driving it for fear that it will die out on me. I'm thinking I may possibly have a loose connection somewhere. I don't think that the alternator is bad nor is the battery. I really have no idea what's wrong.

Any suggestions?

1987firechicken

Go to autozone and get the alt checked to make sure it is not that they do it for free so it can't hurt. You may also have a ground loose or hanging somewhere.

Herbal Chicken

I had the battery and alternator tested and they're both still good. The car now loses all power when I try to start it, then it stays like that for a while. I'm sure I have a bad connection, bad ground, or short somewhere.

The car had an engine swap done before I bought it. Does anyone know any particular problem areas I should check? I don't even know where to start really.

Thanks for your help.

SLICK_LS1

iTrader: (10)

I had the same problem bro. But what i did was go to autozone and tell them to give me a new alternator. They said it was fine and holding power but they problem was internal. So they may say its fine but still i would get another one. Have not had any problems since.