I drove my car to work today and noticed the alt gauge was reading low right at the top of the yellow warning range, it was too late to turn around to go home, so i made it here ok, but now it won't start, it cranks til the battery dies down but won't fire. If the alternator was totally shot, would that prevent ignition?

Need help fast,
Thanks,
Jason

 

Does it start if you jump it? You may have drained the battery to the point where it cannot support the amperage draw that the starter needs. If that is the case, a replacement alternater (pending testing of your current one), and a battery recharge would do the trick.

But to answer your question, no, a bad alternator would not hinder the ignition. Alternator isnt really charging anyway when you start the car....

 

I have't tried to jump it yet, but I will have to try to get it home.

 

sounds like you have a dead battery caused by something bad in the charging circuit.

If your battery was healthy, you should be able to start the car even without an alternator, but in your case, you probably killed the battery while driving to work to a point where it doesn't have enough juice to fire the engine back up.

If you get the battery fully charged you should be able to start the car, but without alternator, you won't get far.

As for the real cause, I'd suspect alternator, or voltage regulator (sometimes those things are inside the alternator itself, sometimes they aren't. Don't know about our cars yet) Plus check all the wires, it could be corrosion.

 

Checked all the wires, all clean. The alternator is original and the battery is about a 4 yr old Diehard Silver. My luck its a bad alternator, cuz that would cost me $ like everything else....

 

take the old one to the parts store and they will give you a discount, its a 30 or less dollar fix I killed mine with an audio amp. It just beat it to death, headlights were dimming real bad before it just died lol.. OMG! its messed up when your whatching the batt power slowly drop while driving. If that ever happens again, dont go home head to the parts store.

 

the alt. has nothing to do with the car starting, if anything it hurts during starting.... the alt, only produces amps once its rotating and engaged at a running rpm.... so wile the engine is cranking the alt does nothing, its not spining fast enought to produce enought amps to help anything... its just a draw of power wile its cranking.... sounds like it went out, and you drained the bat on the way to work, pull the batt out, take it home, charge it, bring it back, plop it back in, driver her home, and then repalce the alt... but let the parts place spin test it and load test it before you buy a new one.