I came back home from a 200 mile flawless drive on Friday. I changed the oil Saturday night. Went to start the car to come back to college, my monte basically freaked out. My gauges started flickering, the starter did not crank, and my rear backup LP relay started clicking it may also have been another relay, but I'm not sure. In the off position with key in or out, the car would do this. While on accessories a few less electronics were going haywire. In on position, nothing happens. Holding start position does nothing either. Even pressing the brakes triggered this while no key was in the ignition.

I had to take my parents van back to school - oh well. Does anyone recognize this problem? It's still under warranty, so my Dad will call the dealership tomorrow, but I was just wondering if anyone had a clue. It almost sounds like a short circuit somewhere. I think all my fuses looked fine.

 

My '03 just did the same thing a couple weeks ago. The battery was dead. When I replaced it, everything went back to normal. Check it out...

 

Alrighty, I'll give it a try.

Can an alternator be over-revved thus rendering it useless by frying the wires? Suppose car and driver A was to down shift from 4th to 2nd on accident and the car over-revved and turned off, could it fry the alternator leaving driver A [no names, lol] with enough battery power for a ~~200 mile road trip?

 

The alternator has a regulator in it. The regulator's job is to regulate the amount of charge, either to lower or raise it. I don't think you hurt anything.

 

Hey thanks man.

The battery checked out with our Voltmeter for 12V, but the O'Reilly's came back and said it was a bad battery. I don't understand why. Either way, we put a new battery in and works great.

 

Seems to be a common problem. I had the same thing as well and the dealership said they had a few like that.

 

As I understand it, a good battery should read 13-14 volts.

 

A battery can read 12 volts and still test bad. The only time it should read 13-14 volts is if you rae measuring voltage with the engine running (since the alternator is charging it). A fully charged battery should read about 12.85 volts and fully discharged around 11.85 if I remember correctly.