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Hi Everyone, hopefully someone can help me!
I have a '92 240 that has 253k on it and ran wonderfully... until last week. I started having some issues where the ABS and SRS lights came on and a few other lights were on very dimly, but as I drove they the dim lights faded away. The battery light was one of the dim lights that faded away (I was worried that it was the alternator - which it still could be). I stopped by an auto parts store and had them test the battery. It wasn't fully taking a charge so I had a new one put it. It kind-of helped but not entirely.
Today I was driving my car and got a little over one hundred miles from home and the following happened: my windshield wipers were moving slower than normal (this, once again, made me think that the alternator was dying). After more time passed the ABS light came on. Then about 5 minutes later the SRS light came on. Then I noticed that the temperature gauge bottomed-out and the fuel gauge was no longer reading correctly (I had filled-up about 40 miles prior but now it was reading at half full). I knew that I was going about 55-60mph but the speedo was only reading 35. Then the engine started hesitating and lurching. I was able to get off the road and onto a side street. I turned the car off to see if I could "reset" the problem.
After turning off the car, I waited about 10 seconds and tried to turn it back on. The lights on the dash came on but it wouldn't start (no "clicking"). I called AAA and started that whole process. After about 5-10 minutes I tried again and this time the starter was "clicking" but still wouldn't start. An hour later when the tow truck showed up, he tried it and it started right up and he drove it on to the truck.
Now I'm really worried because it is an intermittent problem where the car may have to be heated up before the problem shows up. Would a dying alternator cause this? It's putting out some juice but not enough? Would that cause the faults that I saw? The other thing that I noticed was when all of the lights come on for the initial test when starting the car, the SRS light is the last to go out and, unless I'm imagining things, it seems to take a lot longer to go out than it used to.
Any ideas and/or insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
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