OK, a car, not third gen, had a squeaky alternator and a battery that smelled like it was burning and there was lots of corrosion on the negative terminal. It always bogged at idle and it would die at a stoplight once in a while.

I replaced the alternator and battery and everything was ok for about a day but then I started to smell the battery again. I popped the hood and no corrosion yet but the battery has a boiling sound to it. What could cause this? Could it be a bad ground? Wiring looks fine and no breaks or frays, and the connections are clean and tight.

I've never had a problem with Napa parts so I don't think it's the parts, but something is definitely wrong. I ask here because this board literally knows everything and the Corolla forum couldn't help me. Please help because I don't want to drive the bird for the winter!

 

Got a multi meter?

 

14.2 at idle with nothing on. 13.9 with heater on 3/4, radio on, rear defogger, daytime running lights, and dome light.

Yes, I have a multimeter and a test light.

 

has anyone done any electrical work beside the bat and alt?
bat,alt, and starter all seam to go out together with in months....one poor part in the circuit tends to wear the others.

I thinks you have a short or dragging starter.

go out at night and move things around with the electrical wire to see if it is a major short you can see....I found my pos side of the battery welded to my exhuast manifold this way at 1 am...lol

Also use a spray bottle at night to test your plug wires...looks cool if they are bad.

 

Starter was replaced last month! LOL, funny how you mentioned it.

The car is coil on plug and plugs are getting spark. So much for checking wires, damn I hate that POS!

 

Boiling battery? The only time i've seen that happen is when I tried to jump a car with the batt hooked up backwards.
Make sure the battery you bought doesn't have swapped posts.
And also trace your pos and neg cables to make sure you're not going where you shouldn't.

I imagine overcharging could do the same thing. Do you have an ammeter to test the current?

 

ammeter, that is something I didn't think about.

cables are going where they should and the battery is from Napa and didn't have a problem with the old battery until recently when all these little problems started happening.

A friend told me to check to make sure the battery is grounded and that should take care of it, but I'm not so sure, something about that doesn't sound right.

 

Some batteries have the positive on the right and some have it on the left. Just make sure that they aren't swapped on the battery that you just bought.

I buy NAPA parts all the time. They do screw up on occasion.

 

How would the car start if it was backwards? I double checked this morning and it isn't backwards.

 

I would check the amperage because it sounds like you are overcharging the battery . I had this problem once on a '85 T-10 Blazer I helped my little brother get . We changed the alternator and I moved and cleaned the ground to the back of the alternator instead of the block and it would do this untill I moved it back to the block . You don't have that problem so I would think that maybe the alternator is putting out to many amps for your battery to handle .

 

if thaat is not a new battery get one. before you replaced the altenator it damaged it. the plates inside are shorted.

 

I replaced the battery and the alternator at the same time. When the old alternator was in the car with the old battery, at idle, it only put out 4 amps and at 2000 rpms, it put out 78 amps. I'm still thinking I have some kind of wiring issue.