battery dieing?

its supposed to "slosh" as there is actuall liquid in the battery(battery acid) do you have a 12v tester? thats the only way you will diagnose anything. go to wally world or any other cheapo place and pick up a 12v tester for dirt cheap like 10-15 bux and then you can test your alternator battery etc.etc.etc

if you have one

1st hook it up to + and - on your battery, read the voltage with nothing on(should be minimum 12.6) then start the car, with nothing on it should be about 13.4(or close to it) if its charging it will be closer to 14.4v at idle(just depends) then have someone turn your lights on while you watch the volt meter, it should drop a little but then pick back up after the alt kicks in, if it is showing 14.4 with no lights on and 14.4 with lights your alt is working charging the battery and i would say its probably your battery that is not holding a charge.
with the lights on and at 14.4v turn your a/c unit on full blast(if you have a/c if not use heat) should drop a little then pick back up, if it picks back up turn your sound system on(if you have one) same thing, all while leaving everything else going, if all this stuff on and your alt is still puting out 14.4v or so then your alt is good and your battery is not holding a charge.

these numbers can be with in a few .points up and down. i.e 14.6 or 13.8

 

or just tell us the readings, my battery sits fn low and is fine, and u probably wont get 14.4 especially on this car, as for the alt "kicking in" that doesnt happen its always going ;p voltage may drop a bit as load is put on as its always harder to start something than keep it going.

if its only when teh headlights are on or when something is on alternator is probably not producing enough voltage so check your voltage not running, and running and for fun with everything on. how long do u drive before it drains, to see if its not holding charge. test the batt with teh car off at night and again in the morning before it starts up, thattle tell if u have a draw or a bad battery then take the battery to canadian tire and have them test it, battery must be out of vehicle, its free at can tire report back

 

wrong, the alternator has a regulator built in that constantly monitors the flow of power and shuts off the exciters for the field when it reaches a predetermined voltage(hince the regluating part) this is a very quick happening but the alternator does stop producing voltage(after all it would constantly produce 14.4v steady and you would over charge your battery and fry it that way)...just the same way the fuel injectors will turn off on deceleration.

 

my battery kept dying

I got a new one

now it's fine

 

ok i thought u were being really dumb just checking it appears you know more than i do

 

lol, i rebuild them and turn some of them into a/c power houses and welders

 

That means your alternator is toast dude...battery is probably fine....provided you haven't destroyed it by running with a bad alt

 

that was my guess already

 

doing that will fry any of todays alternators no matter what is wrong or not wrong with them, you cant do that on an alt. that has an internal voltage regulator, you used to be able to do that on the external voltage regulators and be ok because the old ones had actuall relay's inside the voltage regulator box, no they have solid state relays that are very sensitive to heat, you pull the battery cable it over heats pop bad alt.

 

cool, just dont unplug the battery cable on this new one or you will fry it.