96 Cavalier Alternator or Battary... Or both?

RAVEN_TEK

MEMBER
1996 CHEVROLET CAVALIER

141,000 miles
Automatic.
FWD

My suspitions are Alternator and battary.

Car will not start. ( Does not even crank ) unless it is connected to a jumper kit or other car via jumper cables.

Gagues in car while on are spontanius and will jump around all over the place. Battary is on the whole time. Also brake lights come on telling my my Emergensy brake is lifted ( when its not ) car will then Turn itself off. When driving the car will start out ok for a few seconds then will begin jerking back as the gears shift ( usualy its a very smooth shift )

Im guessing its the battary but I dont wanna buy a new one and waste it in a week cause the Alternator was the problem. What is recomended I do? Battary is in fact 5 years old now.

3 Replies

RASMATAZ

MECHANIC
75,992 POSTS

Start with this: charge the battery till it comes up to 12.4volts on an open voltage test-now connect the battery properly/tight connections. Hook up the voltmeter to the batt, now start vehicle read the voltage should be 13.5 volts or better if not -have the alty check by a pro.

Also try this for the battery check, disable the ignition to prevent from starting crank engine over for atleast 10sec keep an on the voltmeter if the battery drops below 9.6 volts from 12.4 when battery charge 2x-my guess now is you need a new battery-5yrs is too! Long. Its probably not taking the charge from the alty.

HTH and Good Luck thanks for dropping.

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Saturday, July 14th, 2007 AT 11:10 PM

RAVEN_TEK

MEMBER
6 POSTS

How much would a standered Alternator cost and how much would a standerd battary cost?

Could an OLD 5 yr. Batt cause issues to the Alternator?

Is there a way for me to take like an AMP meter and see formyself if the alternator is functioning?

My father advised I try something about removing one of the cables on the battary red or black ( not sure which one ) and see if car turns off?

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Monday, July 16th, 2007 AT 4:32 PM

RASMATAZ

MECHANIC
75,992 POSTS

Get them load tested to see if its doing their job-5yrs is too!Long on the Batt.

Alty Test-disconnect the batt. At alty, hook-up amp. Meter in series, put a load and read off the max output it can give. Not to snuff follow the battery's situation

Disconnecting cable while engine is in operation is a bad idea it will cause an overloading problem, then again I don't believe in it, if I don't use my DVOM.

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Monday, July 16th, 2007 AT 10:40 PM