In Oct I found that I needed a new alt. Replaced it seemed to work but battery light was always on. about 2 weeks ago we could not maintain a charge to battery. Replaced battery and alt. Still can not maintain charge after jumpstart Van will run until it dies(I think I need to clean the injectors) or is shut off. This morning it died and didn't want to start even with a jump. after about 20 minuted of charging via jump it drove but wanted to die all the way home my radio would flash on and off and headlights flickered.

It might be time to shoot this old dying horse it has 230,000 mile on it. I was just hoping to drag her along until taxes came back. Anyone have any ideas on how to save this baby?

 

Well, many auto parts places will check the charging system for you, but if you have a multimeter handy you can check to see if the alternator is doing its job. Once started (yea I know you are having problems starting and stay running) check to see if the charge voltage is somehere between 13.5 to 14.5 Voltage area...does not have to be dead nuts in that area just enough above 12 V to charge. I usually make the measurement in two places....from the center of the to battery post to make sure that the charge volgage is actually getting to the battery, and from the outer battery post clamps.

I think your battery is good because you just replaced it. Now a riskier measurement to make would be to turn off the engine after a fresh charge and put the current function ofthe Multimeter in series with the positive terminal and the positive terminal clamp and see if there is a draw on the battery when you think that there should be minimum. I think to just maintain your clock and ECU memory etc you should only see a few Milliamps of draw, but if you are showing draw in excess of 500 or more millamps that could draw your battery down. The danger of a bad measurement is you would pop the current function of the multimeter, never take a direct current measurement directly across the battery, there is not a multimiter made that can take that kind of current. Although most are fused, some are are simply shunted and would fry.

Ok I am rambling now...Good Luck.

 

Thank you so much for your reply. After lots of reading here on the site I decided to test both battery and alternator even tho I was sure it couldn't be either because that would mean a bad alternator out of the box 3 times in a row. But alas the alternator IS bad. We will see if that is my issue. If however this new tested and professionally installed alternator happens to go bad what could my problem be?

Again Thank you so much for your help
-Jessica