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Hello Bricksters,
I have encountered a very strange series of events indeed. I recently moved from Buffalo, NY, to Austin, TX, and right before the move, I had to replace the battery and the alternator. In both cases, the car died form low voltage while driving--the dash lights dimmed, and when sitting at a light, it started idling erratically and then died. First I replaced the battery and then, after it died again in the same fashion, towed it to a mechanic who replaced the alternator. I was in the middle of a very stressful move, and had no free time to work on the car.
Surprisingly, it made it all the way to Austin fine, and drove for several months after. In the mean time, I replaced a faulty power steering pump and a faulty oil pressure sender. There were some signs of shoddy alternator installation--the wire that runs from the alternator to the dash warning lights was frayed, and instead of using solder or a butt connector, mechanic simply twisted ends together. He also connected the oil sender lead to the alternator (making me wonder during my trip to Austin why my oil pressure light suddenly was working).
Anyhow, the same thing has happened again with the new battery and the new alternator. Very strange. And to make it even weirder, this time when the tow truck tried to jump it, not only would the starter not engage, but none of the dash lights illuminated either and the car generally acted like it still had a dead battery even with the jumpers connected. Tow truck driver diagnosed me with a bad starter, which I assume is possible also, but that would certainly not explain why the battery died while driving.
While tooling around with the frayed wires near the alternator (the oil pressure sender lead, and the alternator warning light lead have keep coming loose from the butt connectors I've installed) I noticed a continuous clicking from the relay housing behind the dash. Could this somehow be responsible for draining power?
Terminals are quite corroded already on the new battery. I will clean and try to jump again, but why could the battery be draining like this? There must be a short somewhere. Could it be connected to the random clicking in the relay housing?
Thanks so much for your help bricksters,
Shane
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