BCcgt

Today I shut off my car and came back to start it half an hour later and it was as if the battery had died in that short time. There was a click noise from under the hood and nothing else. It immediately sent the volts to zero and all lights in the dash went dim/black. I had a similar problem 2 months ago but when I replaced the alternator all was fine. I cant see a good alternator going bad in 2 months.

What would this most likely be? Starter? Ignition switch? alternator again?

Please help, the first snow of the year is supposed to fall tomorrow and I need my quattro

- GT Style -

Sounds like the whle car is toast, give it to me ; - )

powerkraut

voltage regulator?

EuroTrasher

I work at an automotive electrical shop, so I see lots of starter issues. The click means the starter is firing, everything going dead means either that the switch is cutting out power to everything else (i don't think)or that the starter is drawing alot of amperage and getting nothing out of it. Check your battery and cables first, but if they're ok, I'd say starter's the most likely bet.

BCcgt

Well I got some more info on the problem it seems as when the battery has a decent charge and I try to start the car there is a puff of smoke that comes from the wires out of the positive battery cable. Could this be caused by the windings in the starter shorting out?

I'm pretty sure exactly the same thing happened when I had to replace the alternator last time. I had a used alternator off the coupe that I replaced the last one with so maybe its bad too? It doesnt seem like a voltage regulator problem cause when I had problems with that before it wouldnt let the battery charge, not kill all power to the car.

powerkraut

sounds like there is something really hosed in the starter, because of the power draw when you hit the key. maybe just the solenoid is locked up, but i'd say yank the starter and bench test it with jumper cables- if you know how to- and see if thats it.

Supercoupe

a bad connection at the battery. Do you have a universal end, the kind that you put the cables under a clamp and tighten down to fix a broken cable? or if it's not, check to make sure there isn't a crack in the lead end that surrounds the post. I had this problem just rececntly over the summer with mine. Had a crack in the end, some moisture got in and when I tried to start the car after getting a coffee at Double D it won't start, similar to your condition. Opened the hood and went back inside to try again and saw an arc and smoke come from the bad terminal end, used the emergency-vise-grip-clamp-it-tight-and-pray special tool method to start it and get home. Good luck.

'81 tic-tac

my car did the same thing.. ran fine until i pulled into a gas station, stopped the car, filled up and the car was dead.
worth looking into

BCcgt

I got a jump start today and nothing happened so I decided to disconnect the alternator just to see what would happen. And that was it, starts up perfect off a good battery.

So what could have gone wrong in the alternator that would have caused this?

powerkraut

either the winding is bad or the voltage regulator is... i guess first you should check all of the wiring to the alt, just in case something rotted off or got disconnected (belt included).