bad battery?

[vladjan]

hey guys, today my battery light turned on. The car is driving as perfect at it was before except i see that annoying batter sign on the dashboard. i changed the battery about 2 months ago. the thing is that i helped a friend to jump start his nissan altima car about 3 days ago. i drove after and no battery light. i have a 2004 mazda 3i 2.0 .
what do you guys think this could be?

thanks

vlad

 

[flash75]

Probably a bad alternator. The red light indicates a charging fault, your car is running off the battery. It will stop running when the battery dies. Have the alternator checked.
If you didn't do the jump start right you may have fried the alternator.

Clifton

 

[vladjan]

can you please define a "wrong" jump start. Im not a car person but, i connected the wires to my friends dead car, then !st positive on my battery and than negative. Is that correct? i didnt see any sparks or anything. Car does run fine.. i took it to autoze they hooked it up the machine.. while the battery light was on, the battery wasnt giving too much power, once i turned of the car, then back on, the light went away and the battery had a full charge. Please advise what to do,


thanks
vlad

 

[flash75]

Sounds like you did the jump start correctly. If the light is not on now and the car is running ok, you should be ok.

Clifton

 

[vladjan]

the light came back today :/ autozone guy told me my contact were corroded, so when he cleaned them, i turned of the car, then turned it back on, the light went away.. but now light is back ok
arghh i hope its not the alternator, cause those run a lot and being a student thats not usually fun ..

 

[vladjan]

btw thanks for the response :]]

 

[vladjan]

wowwww today i drove to school. the battery light was still on. then all of a sudden ABS light turned on, the car stalled at the light once, but at the same time was in 3rd gear. i wasnt able to change the gear even with the manual mode. Then when i made about 15-20 mph turn, my power steering light and E brake lights turned on AND my power steering and brakes went out. I had to pull a hand brake so i won't slam into a light pole..... Car stereo was going on and off. But then later after 1 min of driving all lights turned of and the car started driving normal -____- after going back from class, it worked perfect without any lights. later tonight i turned it back on and the battery light is back on again. Im scared to drive the car cause the brakes and steering might lock up on me again. Possibly a burned out ECU? can and alternator cause all this mess?

 

[Sinister_MS6]

wowwww today i drove to school. the battery light was still on. then all of a sudden ABS light turned on, the car stalled at the light once, but at the same time was in 3rd gear. i wasnt able to change the gear even with the manual mode. Then when i made about 15-20 mph turn, my power steering light and E brake lights turned on AND my power steering and brakes went out. I had to pull a hand brake so i won't slam into a light pole..... Car stereo was going on and off. But then later after 1 min of driving all lights turned of and the car started driving normal -____- after going back from class, it worked perfect without any lights. later tonight i turned it back on and the battery light is back on again. Im scared to drive the car cause the brakes and steering might lock up on me again. Possibly a burned out ECU? can and alternator cause all this mess?

Wow You should really get ur car fixed. Sounds like a big problem now!

 

[flash75]

You should get the car checked in a good repair shop that has test equipment to
evaluate what is causing the problem. It's probably possible for an alternator to cause
the problems you have, but it isn't a good idea to randomly change parts unless you know they are defective. The ECU could also be bad but they rarely fail.

Clifton

 

[vladjan]

i am actualy sitting at the mazda dealer right now, as mucbh as i hate taking my car to the dealer but out of all people the have the best equipment for our cars. They told me they pulled multiple codes right now, didnt tell me what just yet, ill update as soon as i find out

 

[vladjan]

ok so apperantly my thermostat is leaking on the alternator.. causing the power outage.... fml
so they recommended replacing the thermostat and the alternator. but i talked to the technician he said at this point the alternator should still be ok, but thermostat has to go

 

[flash75]

Maybe he means the thermostat housing is leaking on the alternator. The thermostat is inside the housing.

Thanks for keeping us posted, sorry we couldn't give you an easyb fix.

Clifton

 

[vladjan]

yea he said that the thermostat housing is leaking. Does that mean i can just replace the housing without replacing the thermostat?

 

[flash75]

All it should need is a gasket. Your thermostat may be ok but if it's never been changed it may be a good idea to replace it. Thermostat failures do sometimes happen.

Clifton

 

[vladjan]

what are the consequences of a failed thermostat?

 

[flash75]

Usually the engine overheats. If it fails in the open position the engine will not
warm up quickly and may run too cool in cooler weather. A bad thermostat will not regulate and control engine temperature.

Clifton

 

[vladjan]

oh ok thanks man i will go to m y mechanic on saturday to fix everything. im scared to drive because sometimes lghts start flashing on the dashboard again.. last time is flashed i lost brakes and steering....dealer gave me an estimate of 750 dollars to change the alternator and the thermostat. but i think is that all i need is a housing gasket or whatever its called. even if i do need an alternator and a thermostat my mecahnic can do it for half ot that price. i hate how dealers rip u off

 

[JReichle1]

$170 for alternator $100 for instillation. $35 for thermostat and gasket and $50 to install plus $20 for coolant. $375-$450 sounds about right.

 

[vladjan]

drove to school today.. everything was ok.. came back from class, started the car, all the lights start blinking, lost power steering, so i decided before is start driving i would restart the car hoping it would temporarily fix the problem. the car would not start -__-
fml... so my friend jump started the car, the car started running but in about 3 mins it stalled and it kept on doing that everytime we would charge up the battery. So i had to tow it home. freaking perfect way to end a tough day

 

[vladjan]

ok paying 340 cash, to replace the alternator and the thermostat gasket. parts were210+labour 130.
not too bad considering the dealer quoted me 760+