Battery or Alternator? A True Story

Aug 11, 2017

Hey, everyone. I’m here to tell you a story about my old car. It was honestly a really awesome car – a 1993 Geo (yeah, seriously, they’re still on the road) with a manual transmission and that great vintage feel. Sure, it didn’t have power door locks… or power windows… but it had fewer than 100,000 miles on it when I got it and I felt very cool whenever I was driving it.

When I bought it, the guy told me that there wasn’t anything wrong with it – and he’s a nice guy, I know him, so I guess he didn’t know what was going to happen. I mean, I didn’t know either. So, I drove it home, feeling great, and it worked perfectly. I drove it around for a couple of months, and every so often a little issue would arise – the ABS light was on, but that was just a sensor issue, sometimes the radio would sound weird, and then one day the battery light came on. I was like, “okay, fine, maybe this is just a sensor issue too.” So I had my dad look at the car and I asked him specifically to look at the battery. I came back and his report was that everything was fine, and I trusted him.

That is, until a couple of days later when I parked my car, turned it off, and then… it wouldn’t turn on again. Dead battery. Great. I called my dad and learned that his idea of “checking the battery” was actually “lifting the hood and looking at the battery with only eyeballs.” So, we went to the auto parts store, bought a new battery, finagled it in, and everything seemed to be going well. I was kind of confused at first about how we would know if the new battery would be the right size, but it was written right on the old battery and also in the owner’s manual. Easy peasy!

But then! A few days pass and I am driving to work. My car is kind of on the fritz… the windshield wipers are really slow and the radio has turned itself off. Of course my first thought was that my car was haunted or that I was entering an X-Files type alien scenario (which was only emphasized when my dials and stuff started flashing and dimming), but then I stopped at a stoplight and my car just… died. I couldn’t even turn on the hazards! It was stone dead and I was just a sitting duck in the right lane. Good thing I didn’t have power windows, because I could just crank one down so I could wave other cars past while I figured out what to do.

Luckily I was right next to a gas station, and a very helpful man came and helped me push my car into the parking lot. I called my dad, who called Triple A, and they eventually came and towed my car to the shop. I learned later that day that it wasn’t in fact the battery that was dead – the alternator had gone. The car was also toast, structurally speaking, so I did have to say goodbye to him that day.

Anyway, I guess the moral of my story is to always check to make sure it’s really your battery that’s the problem. The way to do this is to jump your car and run the motor for a while. Turn the car off after you do this, and then turn it on again. If it still won’t start, it’s probably the battery – the alternator is working to keep the battery charged while the motor is running, but the battery just can’t hold a charge anymore. If the battery is working, then check the alternator a little more closely. If the lights in your car are dimming gradually, if your headlights run brighter when you accelerate but then dim as you slow down, or if you heard a growling sound or smell burning rubber or hot wires, it’s probably the alternator. This can be expensive, but if you want your car to run… that’s what I’ve got for ya. Take your car in to your dealer, because they’ll be able to correctly diagnose the problem and replace or repair anything that needs to be replaced or repaired.

Anyway, I’m now driving a Prius around and I have to say, I really do appreciate the power windows and locks. The comforts of modernity are maybe a little better than driving around a car that makes me look cool, but doesn’t have any air conditioning – looking cool is less awesome than being cool. I still miss my Geo though. Sometimes. Very rarely.