As I was exiting the freeway today, my Eclipse AVN 6620 started flickering, and I got a CEL. Good thing I was close to home, b/c my power steering was going out and my windows were rolling up about a quarter inch a second.

Here is a pic of the CEL:




I'm pretty sure it's the battery, but I bought my Optima deep cycle yellow top brand new only two years ago. I also have an 800 rms watt PPI base amp, a 400 rms watt PPI speaker amp, and a 1 farad cap. I also have aftermarket hids in the fogs and low beams, man do those ballasts get hot!

My question is, can I do some cursory checks myself to see if its either the battery or the alternator before taking it to the shop to pull the codes?

Additionally, if it is indeed the battery, any good recommendations? I might just throw in a standard battery.

Thanks guys.

 

get the battery checked. Good chance its got a blown cell cause thats what the yellow tops are known for cause they suck for a starter battery.. I'd go with a kinetic battery (the biggest you can fit) if you can still find them.

man I know that that year GS the alternator doesnt keep the car on without a battery, but damn, didnt think the car would react that way...hopefully its not the alternator. if you can still idle the car, see if you can meter what the alternator is putting out at.


btw, thats not a check engine light its just a battery indicator light or warning light

 

ya,ya, CEL, warning light, same ***** different toilet. jk jk.

so, would a blown cell mean my yellow top is gone? i mean, i'd rather scrap the yellow top then ship it back to get fixed.

i have a 99, and i'm pretty sure the alternator is the original. but ya, the car was acting super funny. felt like the lex was in slow motion.

i'm not familar with kinetic batteries. i was just thinking about getting either the bosch standard battery at pepboys, or the kirkland or red top from costco. I know the red top is known to be a solid starting battery. But how would that cope with my system?

My main issue is that I dont want to replace the battery, then find out its the alternator.

 

start it disconnect the battery while its running if it dies bad alternator

 

this is incorrect. as I stated before, with that year GS, you cannot do that. I just found that out. hey, we all learn something new right


OP: If the optima is still under warranty, all you have to do is return it to where you bought it and they'll exchange it for you. back when optima was considered the best, I too had problems with it. As said, 2 years after I bought it one of the cells blew so it wasnt holding a full charge; I went back to where I got it and they exchanged it, exactly 2years later to the month it happened again! I wasnt able to exchange it cause warranty was up, however I found some guy from a different city who said yea just bring it... hell yea I traveled far for that got a new one... honestly I dont remember why I removed it cause its sitting in my garage right now LMAO! I need to see if its still good or not.

anyways, if you dont know if its still under warranty, look on top you'll see a bunch of numbers for months and years, there will be a round sticker removed from the month and year the warranty is up, if its past you cant exchange it.

no need to make the extra expense on an unneeded battery as you fear. Just take the battery in to auto zone or walmart or where ever and they'll trickle charge it for an hour and see if it holds a charge. They'll tell you if its got a bad cell or not. If it doesnt have a bad cell and it holds a charge, then you have to take the alternator in to autozone and have them check it; takes about 5 minutes. Alt removal is easy, remove belt, remove 2 plugs and the wire going to the battey. get on back under car and there are 2 bolts, someone will have to pull it out through the top.

Now theres a chance that if the battery is blown that it could have put stress on the alternator thus taking it out... however now that I think about it, this may be why the alternator was made not to run the car without a battery... so it doesnt get taken out.


its kinda weird though your problem cause Im running a LOT of power including a pair of air compressors and have had my car go down to 11v while driving clipped my amps and all and didnt have any reactions with the car.

 

voltage may be low but the ampere(current) from the alternator is helping run it ,just because the voltage is low thosent mean it has a real problem have you seen the voltage drop when you start your car it can go down to 11.0 to 11.7 or ..9 before its start its also the amp from the battery that helping the car turn over if the cell is bad then that can lead to a ampere drop across the whole battery but the voltage remain the same or until the cell are shoot to hell

as for the red top junk they last only a 2yr ive had my yellow top now going 3to4 yr going strong no problem and its been in 3cars in that time cross my finger i may get another one soon to be safe...now i ive tried the durstlast gold top and i must say its a soild battery and i dont really like autozone brand products but i had it in car in storge for over 3month in dead of winter and it took like 3 time to start and bam the car started just my 2cent

 

Considering your audio setup I would say a Kinetic is a great choice if it is your battery thats failing... Hopefully its something simple like the battery or alternator..

Goodluck!

 

I can help you Chris if you were closer bro.
Have your charging system checked out before jumping into conclusion. They have a tool where it puts a load on the battery to determine if the battery is still good or not. To check the alternator, turn on the a/c, defogger and headlights get a reliable digital multimeter check the voltage on the battery at idle and at 2000 rpm, should be around 13.2-14.5 volts. GL

 

X2
...a cheap digital multimeter should let you know whats going on with your car.
GS4_Fiend is right on, do as he mentions and you will confirm that your output of your alternator is below spec.

 

i luv you guys! Will keep you posted!

 

wow, this is weird. i think my car is bipolar.

i just started her up and it everything is back to normal. Audio was playing and all the lights and accessories were back to normal.

i popped my trunk and my digital display on my cap was showing 11.3. I know 12.0 is right around average, what could be happening to my car!!!

 

I fully charge battery should be 12.6.

 

alternator should do the job

 

crossing my fingers. will keep u guys posted. but ya, seems like the alternator is looking more like the main culprit. i was just too skeptical about calling it on the optima.

hey john, if i'm averaging 11.3 out of 12.6 should i be worried? I'm unsure about the accuracy of the cap, b/c i've seen it fluctuate in .5 swings regularly.

 

i dunno what model you have....i see u have a 99 but do u have the gs300 or gs400?

if its the 400 i have a alternator off my 2001 gs430 i could sell you for the lo lo (i think this will work for your V8 also) thats in good condition i took off for my aftermarket alternator