Is It My Alternator Or Battery?

[Narcissism]

Hello all,

 

Sorry if this is in the wrong forum :rolleyes:

 

I have recently bought a 2001 C5, Only had it a few days but everything on it was running fine. This morning i popped out to the shops and when i got back and tried to start the car it just made a "clicking noise" (sorry for the very techinical terms... my first car!)

 

I just though, Ah crap i must have left something on last night and my battery has gone dead. Got a friend to come and jump start it and it drove home fine. I didn't notice any lights on the dash that wern't there beforehand but again, this is my first car and i havn't had it long.

 

When i got it home i got my battery charger out and set it to work.. Checked on it an hour later and it said fully charged (unless i didnt charge it properly? just set the pos and neg wires up and away it went)

 

Put it back in the car and now it makes the "car trying to start" sound but doesn't actually get there, when i took the battery out again it went on another hour charge rampage.. surely i couldn't have used all that charge in a few tries to start the engine?

 

Gonna take it to citerion tomorrow, just wondering waht you guys though it was?

 

many thanks

[Narcissism]

Well i have the car starting now, good job i actually read the book. I needed to leave the battery in for 10 mins with the car on to "re-initialize" its self :rolleyes:

 

Gonna see if its dead in the morning or if the battery light apears telling me that it's the Alternator

[Guest Colin Hunter]

Hi there.

 

If your car is 2001 it's likely that the battery is past it's best. It's probably better to bite the bullet now and get a new one before the cold weather comes along. That will almost certainly see it off! If the battery light went out when the car was running it's unlikely to be the alternator.

 

Cheers. :unsure: