Is my alternator or battery dead?

I have not replaced either the alternator or battery in over 4 years. I've replaced the engine starter 4 months ago.Today is day 2, my car won't start and all the dashboard lights come on. I use my car battery charger and I was able to crank the engine to start and all the lights go away briefly. If I wait about 15 seconds, the dashboard lights start to come on, the engine starts to sputter and lowering RPM and the engine just stops. On the next round of cranking, I gave the engine some gas to increase RPM to get the internal battery charging, but no luck as it is the same thing and the engine just dies.

Any ideas, do I need a new alternator or a new battery? My car battery charger's led display was reading like 11.7v for the internal battery before cranking and then reads 10.3v after cranking which usually means the battery is depleted. But usually, if the battery is dead, I should be able to drive for a while after a successful crank. If it's a new internal battery I need, I can walk down to Autozone one mile to pick it up. If it is the alternator, I have to wait until my indy shop opens tomorrow for them to replace. I might have to get a AAA tow truck just to get the car moving 2/3 miles to the shop from my home.

Also, does anyone think it is safe to drive your car while the battery charger is hooked up to the terminals just to allow me to drive to the indy car shop?

My guess would be alternator. If you have a trickle charger, I would charge the battery and then drive it to the Indy.


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I didn't think about the battery charger idea, just picked one up $54 at Autozone and it's charging now. Lets see if it will get me to the indy shop in 3 minute drive away tomorrow, is all I need. Thanks.

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Originally Posted by thinkpad240

I didn't think about the battery charger idea, just picked one up $54 at Autozone and it's charging now. Lets see if it will get me to the indy shop in 3 minute drive away tomorrow, is all I need. Thanks.

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You should be good as long as the battery charges to its nominal state.


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The charger got my battery to work. I use the dashboard diagnostics to determine that my battery's amp wasn't increasing so that pointed to the alternator being bad. I was able to drive it to my local indy shop 1 mile away and they replaced the alternator(back in mid April). So all went fine until I went on a roadtrip out of state in late May and the battery died at the National Park. My 3 year old lithium battery jumper failed me so a park visitor had to jump my car. That worked and luckily I was near a town with an Autozone so they replaced my battery. Thank goodness all went well and I was not stranded. I bought a heavy Shumacher new battery jumper that I take only when going out of town and had the prior one sent to recycle. It's likely the lithium battery died or lost effectiveness due to being always kept in my trunk and the desert heat stressing it.

Thanks for updating this thread. Glad you got it sorted out.