tormentedb

I have a 99 ES300 and I'm having trouble with the alternator and battery.

The issue somewhat started about 6 months ago. I was driving home one night from a near by town and there was a terrible wreck on the highway that blocked both lanes in both directions for over and hour. While I was sitting in traffic, suddenly electrical things on the car started cutting off. First the radio, then other things. Eventually the low battery light came on as well.

Luckily they cleared off a lane shortly after, and when I started moving again everything went back to normal. I immediately thought the alternator must be going bad. But the next day I went and had everything tested and it all came back fine. I had some other work done with my mechanic a few days later for an evap code, and I asked them to check the belts and they said everything was fine.

And I never had another problem in the area until about a month ago. 1 night the radio cut out again, and then the next morning the battery was dead. I got a jump, went to the auto parts store to get my battery tested and they found the alternator was going back and only pumping about 12.5V.

So I bought a new alternator and had it replaced. Everything was fine until the other night, driving home and the radio cut out 3 times. I turned off the AC and the radio came back on, so again I'm guessing something is eating volts. The next morning I go to crank the car - the battery is dead.

I have yet to jump it off and get the alternator tested again. My current one has a lifetime warranty on it, but obviously there is something else that must be causing the issue. I don't want to just replace the alternator every month. There must be something causing this problem.

Does anyone know a way I can test and fix this? I read someone say they had similar problems with a seat button being stuck. I checked my buttons and didn't see anything. I'm not sure what could be putting the drain on things.

Any help is very much appreciated.