I have been having problems with my car not want to charge the battery. When you put a charger on it over night then start it up it'll read at 13 on dash v-meter. But as soon as you turn on headlights or fan,heater ect it drops to just above the dead line. I checked my battery connections and the alt. Looks fairly new. Any ideas for a checklist?thanks.

 

You might need a new alternator. IMO I would take it off and have it tested at one of your parts stores.

 

I've got an extra one that came with the car when I got it, I'm going to stop by and have it tested today. Will update if that one is good and fixes the problem.

 

You can take it to a parts store and have them test both the ALT and the Battery or you can do a back yard test and determine if the ALT is somewhat good..

If you perfer the backyard mechanics test, Start the car, carefully remove the - off the battery terminal. The car should stay running.. If it continues to run, turn on the headlights, and the defoster and heater.. The Alt should have enough power to keep the car running with everything on. Then reconnect the - terminal back on the battery.. That would tell me the Alt is good but the battery might be bad.. So then remove the battery and have it load tested...

 

Be sure and update.

 

So i'm guessing that i need a new battery. it passed the no ground while running test. the alt that came with it was only putting out 8 volts when tested, so its going on the scrap pile. Thanks for the ideas.