No Electrical

[Timmons]

This has been going on intermittently for sometime and i'm sick of it. Stopped at a gas station to fill up my 98 R50 got in the car and the entire electrical system was dead. Unhooked the red battery cable for about 5 min, re-attached and everything was fine again. Is there some kind of relay to protect the cars electrical that might be going dead? Anyone run into this issue before? Hate electrical issues.

[Timmons]

Did some more tests. Any kind of electrical load like lights or turning on the car stereo will kill the engine at idle and the electrical goes totally dead. Un-hook the battery for a min and hook it back up. Car kicks over. No electrical problems when starting it up in the morning an can run anything and it won't kill the car. I noticed that after a long drive and at idle, the lights are a bit dimmer in the car which leads me to believe it's the alternator. Besides probably replacing this, any other suggestions what it might be?

 

Could the problem be the voltage regulator?

Edited December 7, 2010 by Timmons

[adamzan]

I would make sure your battery connections are clean and tight. Then measure the voltage at the battery with the truck running. you should have at least 13 volts.

[rgallant]

Sounds like an alternator to me too, but as adamzan said check the voltage at the battery. You are describing classic failing alternator problems, the battery "recharges' when the path is off and parked, once you start driving the alternator does not supply enough juice so the battery is slowly drained. Resulting in yellow headlights and not enough power to turn over your path once turn off until the battery comes up after sitting for sometime.

 

You want to deal with this sooner rather than later as you can kill your battery.

[Timmons]

Figured it out. The two terminals in the back of the connector attached to the red lead had signs of corrosion. Cleaned them up and everything works fine now.