Q: Electrical problems with battery or alternator.

asked by on January 08, 2016

My car won't start. I have electrical problems related to either the battery or alternator.

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Problems in your starting and charging system will keep your car from starting, but the symptoms of each are different. Batteries that go bad will sometimes check good until you put them under a load like the one a starter draws during cranking. A load test will determine if this is the issue. Alternators normally replenish battery voltage when the car is running, but if it goes bad, the car will drain the voltage from the battery. At that point the car will stop running. A bad starter sometimes moans, sometimes it doesn’t do anything at all and sometimes it works just fine only part of the time. All these can be checked but specialized equipment is needed. A mechanic should be able to help you determine which of these is the cause of your no start.

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