Hey my alternator just began failing on me. I am assuming it is my alternator because my car will not start, except when I use an external battery to boost it, but it eventually loses its charge overnight and the next day I can't start again. Yes I drove the car around for over 10 minutes after boosting it.

Anyways, I was wondering if this is covered under the extended powertrain warranty?

Thanks,
Tim

 

No, I have a low mileage used one

 

check the battery first dont assume its the alternator first, if the alternator is bad the car will still start with a good battery hooked up in the car, itll just die quickly

 

Test alternator output. Charge and load test battery.
Determine which one it is through diagnosis. Don't just go out and buy an alternator and then find out it was a bad battery all along.

 

Battery is a lot more likely

If it will start when boosted....and runs fine...but won't restart on it's own...that's the battery

It might even start on it's own right away...but not after a few hours....battery again

Dead battery and bad alternator....won't run when you remove the battery that you boosted it with

 

Thanks for the information, I hope it is just the battery. I am going to bring the battery into an autoshop to get it tested.

 

If you got an Autozone by you, they will check it all out for free........usually.

I'll bet battery won't hold a charge.
Either that or your connections are all cruddy and not making good contact.

 

If its 3 years old or older save yourself the grief and get a new one

Winter is coming...and even if you live someplace warm..the battery looses a lot of capacity as it cools below about 50 F

 

And to answer your second question, generally powertrain warranties are limited to anything that touches oil/fluid and I believe the extended powertrain warranty only covers the engine? correct me if i'm wrong on that second point.

 

The extended powertrain warranty through '06 covers the engine and driveline for a year beyond the bumper-to-bumper. Engine core warranty is 8 years, 100k. Alternator would just be covered under B to B.

Sure sounds like a bad battery to me. FWIW, 10 minutes is not long enough to charge a run-down battery. Not even close. Also, if you have a decent volmeter, the alternator is really easy to check.

Ken

 

What year is the car and how many miles does it have?

 

10 mintues? u need at least couple hours to charge run down battery. even with rapid charger of 30 to 40 amp

if ur battery is at least 3 years old. its very likely that the battery is shot

 

I'm thinking your problem is the battery because my car started doing that yesterday and I am going to auto zone or advance to get the battery checked if that what it is then i'll let you know but i'm pretty sure thats the problem the alternator still looks new and shiny (Weird) but if that was the problem then car it would kill a new battery in a matter of days so an old one wouldn't stand a chance