General Maintenance & Repairs - alternator going bad?

Well yesterday my car wouldnt turn over at all. I got it jumped in preperation of buying a new battery today. Today, I get it started and maybe back up a foot and it dies. Then it wont turn over at all. I bought and put in a new battery a few minutes ago. While driving around the car is idling really low acting like it wants to die unless you sit at a light for a minute or so. The idle then returns to normal. Also while idling the battery gauge is almost dipping into the red with a brand new battery.

My next guess is the alternator. With my turbo kit on there its a pain in the ass to get to to replace. So i am hoping to avoid it. Anyway let me know.

The first ignition cycle after replacing the battery is probably just the PCM relearning the idle. I'd put a digital volt meter across the terminals and take a reading.

It sounds like your alt is bad. i would check the fuses first, before going to all the effort of removing it. i have had a problem with the little wire that plugs into the top of the alt before, it wasnt making a good connection and causing the alt to only charge sometimes...

Sounds like an alternator to me! What I'd do is, start the car let it idle and unplug the positive from the battery, if the car dies, that means your alternator is not charging, I know some people say is not good to do that, but I've done it to all my cars and never had problems! Thats the quickest way to find out before you have to spend $200 on batteries, I hope this helps, let us know!

Moving to General Maintenance & Repairs....

my altenator is causing the same problems had it tested and I am only pulling 36 amps at 2000 rpms