I was driving down the highway and went to get off an exit. After slowing down just enough to check traffic at the exit from the left I hit the gas and realize my car engine died. I tried starting it and the engine cranked and the rpms jumped up to about 6 or so hundred and it died again. Finally, I rolled to the breakdown lane and parked it. I kept trying to start my car, but the engine wouldnt stay running. I checked the exhaust and saw that some smoke was coming out. Could this possibly be a bad alternator or did I blow a seal or something?

 

bump

 

alternator should be good still. if the starter still operates then that means that the battery still has good power which probably means that the alternator is still good. My alternator died friday and i was driving home on the battery, which quickly went dead. The car will usually spit and sputter as the battery gets low on power. Check to be sure that the fuel pump still works.

 

Hey fstrnyou, how long did you run on just battery juice before it all died? Just curious- I've always thought about 20 minutes was max...(and did you have headlights, a/c, radio on...)

voblink17: first thing I would do is a compression check, after you visually look over everything for something obvious...

 

well, i needed a jump to get going cause it cranked over too slow to actually start. only made it about 15 minutes. at first i had my lights and radio on with electric fan running and A/C on, then it started sputtering so i turned everything off. only made it a few more minutes before i lost enough juice to run the ignition system.