HELP! I haven't been able to drive my car for 2 weeks!!! The reason why is that whenever I turn on my headlights, push the brake pedal, shift the car into either reverse or forward, the entire car stumbles and stutters and wants to quit. All the electrical power stutters.

I thought it mayt have been battery cables but it isn't I checked.

The stuttering will also occur when I am driving down a road in drive the road will be flat and it will still stutter randomly. When the car is not stuttering it runs perfect.

Please help!

 

Do you notice the volt gauge acting abnormally when this happens ?

 

When the car is in the middle of stumbling the volt gauge does drop to a little under halfway (digital dash.

Do you think the alternator could be the culprit?

 

Ah yes I forgot to mention that the car charges perfect and always keeps the volt gauge where it should be, unless it is in mid stumble , which then drops the gauge down to a little under half, but then returns back to normal when/if the car recovers from the fluttering.

 

I heard that my problem may be the regulator in my alternator, but wouldn't the battery act as a buffer and slowly lose voltage not act all crazy?

I was also thinking about checking the wires at the starter. Can anyone tell me which wire goes directly to the fuse box? I think this little wire could also be the culprit.

 

It sounds like a bad ground, hows the condition of the strap going from the firewall to the engine?

 

There should be 3 wires on the main lug of the starter, 2 red & one purple (in my cars case anyways). One red one is the fuse panel & something else, the other red headlights lights, & the purple is the blower motor & the neutral start switch.

The battery will act somewhat as a 'buffer' but, the car will still drop voltage if the alt dies since batteries on a the high side of thier charge is only around 12.5±0.5v. The car shouldn't actually be dieing though.

Somebody else posted a problem similar to this awhile back I think & his problem stopped when he took the 'hush' panel off the bottom side of the dash. I believe it turned out to be some wires touching our something.

I'd make sure everything was tight on the starter 1st & make sure there's a good chassis ground.