Battery Dying while Driving
 

Hi!

I just wanted to pick everyone’s brains as I’m not very skilled with electrical stuff. All of a sudden the other night when driving my XJ, I noticed my indicators stopped working, my headlights died. And the dash lights were very dim. However, the Jeep was running fine. I parked it and then it would not start. It barely turned over.

I left it for 3 days and it started up fine. However this time, my sub and amp would not work and after driving around for 10 minutes, power to my CD deck was lost. I then parked it and it would not start again.

any ideas?

Start simple, take it to a autozone or someplace like that, have them test your battery( also inspect your connections), ALSO have them check your alternator.

Why would a problem with your vehicle not charging be in the AFTERMARKET electrical systems section?

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if your battery dies while you're driving, then 90% of the time, it's the alternator.
otherwise, once your jeep starts off your battery, and you have a good alternator, the jeep will stay running, until you shut it off. then the battery won't have enough charge to start your jeep. (because it won't take a charge from the alternator)

another trick we used to do, was hold a screwdriver against the alternator when it's running. if it's magnetized, the alternator is good. if not, alt is bad. but i've tried it with some newer vehicles than my jeep, and it didn't seem to work. worth a shot tho... that's what i would do in the tow truck when i got a call for a no start. an old mechanic once told me that trick.

I would second the alternator. Had a work van do the same thing a few months ago before it was eventually scrapped as the head cracked lol. 500,000 kms used and abused.