Emergency Trouble Shoot.

[T Man]

Ok, So my girlfriend was on her way home tonight, and her battery light came on. The battery voltage then dropped to 9 and her airbag, and ses light came on. She pulled over and parked it then. Now the car wont turn over at all. She popped the hood and said the positive side of the battery was all sorts of coroded. it is a 99 4wd blazer. I am thinking it is the voltage regulator on her alt. I am not there however to fix it, or even put a Multimeter on it at all. From what I have described, can anyone help me with this. She is frustrated, had a crappy day, and this didnt make things better. Help me out, because this is getting taken out on me.!!!


Hit me up on MSN, Yahoo, or AOL to chat bout this

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[LEADFOOT]

Tell her its not your fault. She broke it. Sounds like alt. is on its death bed. If she gets a jump and removes the cables and it dies, dead alt. Usually when batt. light comes on no juice or not enough juice from alt. The batt. light tells you that you are running on the batt and not the alt.

[T Man]

oh yeah, the rest of the gauges stayed where they were, so im gonna rule out her throwing a belt

[nomaboy]

be carefull when doing that. when you pull the battery cables of the battery when it is running you can send a voltage spike through your computer or any other electrical device and fry it pretty good. that test if fine for vehicles without a comuter.

[bvr775]

you can't do the "pull the cables and see if keeps running" with that year your battery completes a curcuit witout it your alt woun't charge and your engine won't run. Bad corrosion indicates an acid leak from acid boiling out of the battery, but this is caused from overchargeing. why would the gauge show 9v charge? More likely the battery isn't gettig a good connection so it's not chargeing. If you charge the battery and the car will only run for a few sec and dyes consider a bad cell and have the alt checked.

[LEADFOOT]

So you can't start a vehicle in that year range and take the battery out and the car keep running?

[T Man]

absolutely not!!! you will run a huge risk of frying your computer. dont ever do that on a computer truck. PERIOD

[mrmidnight]

another thing, yes the AE has something to say about electrical theory, anyway, the corrosion on the terminal might be just that, corrosion, not acid or anything, yes, when the batteries are made they are made to not rust, but if a scratch happens, the elements will get in there and cause it to rust, causing high resistance. Ohm's Law my friends, I didn't write it, he did. Now I am not saying that that is what it is, but it is a possibility.

[T Man]

her alternator is tits up, thanks guys. She is about 2.5 hours away, so her dad is gonna fix it tomorrow

[LilYellowZQ8]

I had a similar problem with my old 2000 Xtreme, but whenever you hit a bump, the guages would flash and go back to normal. Like BVR said, it was the positive terminal leaking acid creating corrosion that made a bad connection. I took it back to the dealer and they replaced it under warranty. Most batteries should have a 5-7 year warranty against that kind of thing. Just something to check out.

[T Man]

no warranty, 2nd owner. I hope her dad has a multimeter.

[OBI WAN]

Computer OBD2 needs 9 volts min in order to run, from the battery and not the alt.

[bvr775]

don't go by battery warenty life.
Just because the battery says it'll last 5 years dosn't mean it will. In most cases it won't because your not running it in idea conditions.
underchargeing, overchargeing, short drives, heat, cold..ect all shorten a batterys life. Here's the biggest issue with any battery: you don't know how long it was sitting on a shelf or in a warehouse you buy it unless you pay close attension to the manufacthering date. A good battery will have kinda a like a born on date just like budwiser.


a good Battery is a good battery....period the end, but that dosen't change the fact that it's still just a battery and need mantinace like every outher componet in your ride. You don't want to endup dead on the side off the road check your battery every 6 months.

like Jedi said obd2 cars woun't run with a dead battery like the old cars would. so never assume just because you battery light comes on your alt is bad. That will get eexspensive real quick and all you'll have is a flat wallet and the red-ars when you find out your battery terminal wasn't makeing contact and wouldn't allow your battery to charge. Allways go trough the proper diagnosing procedure.check your terminals(clean with wire brush and a mixture of baking soda and water) and check fuses, check your battery(this can be done at any shop), then check your alt(these things are exspensive so check them out before changeing them out. It dosen't make sence to replase the whole alt when a $15 volage reg will do).

[T Man]

i ment the car doesnt have a warranty, i said thanks, it is taken care of.