Ummm, I'd really like to hear the logic behind this comment....

 

Ya exactly I know that's nuts!! That's why I think it has to be something big leaving only the alternator and starter to blame! But my tests are pointing toward the alternator.

Like I got a fresh new battery from autozone and it literally turned my car on twice an then it didnt have enough juice after that to turn on the car a 3rd time "within 3 minutes of installing the new battery" and then all my gauge lights and clock proceeded to quickly dim until all the lights stopped turning on in the dashboard, and even that little beep beep noise it makes when your key is in the ignition slowed down till it stopped making any noise! So trust me I know it's a quick gnarly drain! Haha!

Thank god for autozones battery warranty! Because I got another new battery out of them! Lol

 

It's not the Alt.
Start removing consumers, like a radio or amp if in the car, or anything you have wired up via relay. even a sticking relay will keep consumers on.

 

Ummmmmm, the logic is that the battery is a voltage regulator. Without it, the voltage in your vehicle may exceed the working voltage of many electronics in your vehicle and fry them. Any questions?

 

If a diode on the alternator is shot it will be the alternaor, only way to tell is to remove alternator wires first then test for drain, this is where i would start. These Arent one wire alternators, It has a Ignition ON wire that goes to the alternator, which excites it and turns the feild on. The Diode is basically a one way Voltage THRU switch, when they go bad, current can go the other way when not applied thru it, thus making a short to ground.
Ive seen this happen WAY more then the stator or armature going bad on alternators, Especially on after market alternators.


Quote:
Originally Posted by tkklemann
Ummm, I'd really like to hear the logic behind this comment....


Ummmmmm, the logic is that the battery is a voltage regulator. Without it, the voltage in your vehicle may exceed the working voltage of many electronics in your vehicle and fry them. Any questions?

Correct, and the battery blocks portions of alternating current Signal from the electrical parts of the car. The alternator does convert the AC to DC but you still get AC signal in the current till it gets block by the battery.
So he is right, On cars with sensitive electronics, such as ours it is not smart to disconnect the battery while running, you chance frying stuff with that AC signal.

 

UPDATE!!!!

- I unplugged the alternator and checked amp drain and it went down from the initial drain of 4.44 to .14 which proved that the alternator was the issue.

- i replaced alternator

- took it out going inter the intake manifold - actually was not hard all.

- the hardest part of the whole thing was holding the alternator up with one hand and trying to screw in the upper bold with my other hand to try to hold it in place since it was so heavy :-( haha. if i had a friend to help out on the bottom it actually would have helped a lot. besides that its just a lot of little baby steps.

after i got everything installed and put back together i did a volt reading with the car on and it read 14.56v which is well in range of being good. my old alternator was reading 13.6v

all in all successful weekend and thank you everyone for your help

 

Wow, good one. I've never seen an alternator stay alive to drain 4 full amps.

 

I have changed the alternator in this lancer 3x first I bought a new one from Autozone and it worked for a while then a few weeks later the same problem pops up again. The battery light and brake light are both on and if they stay on my battery will die. Any suggestions on what this could be??

 

I have a similar issue to the OP...changed alternator and battery after relocating the battery to the trunk. I don't get dim lights, no lights on the dash, no indications of anything...but I'll go outside to crank the Evo and nothing happens but then again sometimes it will fire right up. I can turn it to accessory and everything will power on no problem but it won't crank. Typically it happens after I've been driving the car around and if I stop to get gas, about 8/10 times it won't crank back up but will crank no problem if I get a jump from someone. When I first got the car about 4 months ago I didn't have this issue. It cranked just fine for over a month until it slowly began to not crank and got worse and worse until now it's almost anytime I turn the key off it won't crank back up.