Has anyone had this problem? I am starting to think its my car? 99 Z24
I was driving home from the beach the other night, and the battery light came on. well by time i got to the house my head lights were dimmer than day time lights and could barely see brake lights? (45 min drive in the dark with dead alternator, THANK YOU OPTIMA) well i called up the local auto zone, picked up the new alternator and new belt, jumped the car after a min the batt light went off and everything seems to be normal 13.6v at the battery. well lets ride over to the zone and put the car on there alt/batt machine since my brother works at the store. 5 min after i start my drive, welcome back battery light. get to the zone, test the battery now at 11v. the manager tells me and my bro the battery is drained. the tester says good battery but needs charge. so then tells us to drive around a little at about 3000g's to allow the alternator to recharge the batt. i didn't think this to be a good plan. as the red top batt. is a bit pricey? "but with his experience this will make the battery light go off". so we start the dreaded journey. well after about three miles my daytime lights turn off, then no brake lights, no signals, then my gauges drop completely off. hmmmm what is keeping this thing moving. well bye bye fuel pump. so i pushed her across the four lanes off lunch time traffic, hooked my bro's wrx to her about 45 seconds later started then after a min or two, hey my gauges do work. well started the trip back to the Zone. two miles later oh no there goes my lights and gauges again. this happened three times trying to get back to the store. jump started again everytime to drive even shorter a distance than previous. finally we arrived back at autozone. my bro is a parts MANAGER he procedes to tell the store manager that the alternator is bad. he states "there is no way that alternator is bad it has to be the battery" then another brilliant autozone mind, chimes in with this satement " Well i guess thats what happens when you don't drive a ford" at this point i was completely livid. as he is driving a 92 thunderbird it is supercharged, but has all origanl equipment. anyways we take the alt off bench test it in the store. and holy @!#$. a bad alternator duralast reman. so we bring in my battery and test it. 9.6v motha fu#ker now i am really pissed. so then they want me to get a new battery as well. because (Ford man) says"With my experience once a Optima battery gets low it will NEVER NEVER take a recharge NEVER". Well i get a replacement alternator install it. then put my batt on a trickle charge for about 14 hrs. 2amps. next day test battery good charge and 650 cranking amps. install charged Optima and bench tested duralast alt. holy @!#$. my car is working now. So we procede to go back into the store and well... rub it in. that it is amazing how a CHEVY can work with known good parts. well this all happened last week. i work nights. and i am sure that i am not the only one who notices the traffic and cops are a little less at late night. so i decided to run my car a little on the way to work. 1st gaer 5600 rpm's 2nd gear. WELCOME BACK BATTERY LIGHT AHHHHHHHHHH well in the morning i will be returning to the Zone to restart this game. Third alt. in a week. DURALAST SUCKS THEY ONLY REMAN. THE BAD PARTS, AND THEY DO NOT LIKE 5000RPM'S Anyone else been here???
"Keep it Cavy"
Tip:
Next time, seperate that huge-a$$ story into seperate paragraphs. I can't even keep track of where I am in it after a few seconds.
No help for you.
cavrayz24 wrote: DURALAST SUCKS THEY ONLY REMAN. THE BAD PARTS, AND THEY DO NOT LIKE 5000RPM'S Anyone else been here???
as does any remanufacturing company. thats the whole point of offering a remanufactured part. it may not work as good as a new oe unit, therefore its considerably cheaper.
JBO Stickers! Get yours today!
are you bothering to disconnect the battery when you change it out? maybe you are shorting them out some how?
possibly another underlying issue as well.
Agent Omega wrote:Tip:
Next time, seperate that huge-a$$ story into seperate paragraphs. I can't even keep track of where I am in it after a few seconds.
No help for you.
that, me and my add cant even begin to read that
cavrayz24 wrote:DURALAST SUCKS THEY ONLY REMAN. THE BAD PARTS, AND THEY DO NOT LIKE 5000RPM'S
I've dealt with plenty of Duralast parts and have had no problems.
OP: You listen to Autozone employees and beat on your car so why are you complaining?
Well ok ur short story.I bought a new reman for my 85 cav like back in 2000.And yes to this day it does exactly what it is designed to do.Guess ur luck with this issue has not been as good.
Yeah i would check the resistance in some of your wiring.. i bet your getting a bad ground or shorting something out.
OhForKavy wrote:J03Y wrote:poor people do that
I hate to break it to ya..but a lot of people on this site aren't in the wealthy bracket. If we were, we prolly wouldn't have j-bodies
lol this is why when i write books for responses they are separated into one liners.
also ive got lots of electrical parts from the zone & had them be bad-i once bought a dizzy cap that had no visible cracks but was still arc'ing through somehow.
the mechanic that thought it was a good idea to feel around the cap while the car ran was shocked & amazed
I bought a new duralast gold alternator back in 2001, 8 yrs later, still chugging along in m 96 2.2. That optima battery is probably a goner after all the dead charging. put in a new duralast battery on their dime with the alternator. see if that makes a difference. Your post demonstrates what I see at the zone, they are all idiots working there. no offense about your bro. but as you can see, the buffoonery there has caused you some major headaches
