I hadn't driven my car for a couple of months, and didn't have it connected to the float charger. Battery was stone dead. I charged it up with a 6 amp charger for about three hours, and got enough juice to start the car. I then moved it into the garage and put it on the float charger for a week or so (it's the kind of charger that turns on automatically as the battery discharges and then back off when the battery is sufficiently charged).
I went to take the car for a drive yesterday, and found that the Clifford alarm didn't work. OK, I thought, either it just died or I killed it somehow when I charged the car. No big deal. So I took the car out and drove from my house to the coast -- about 40 miles. Everything seemed fine until the CD player started to skip, and then it died. OK, I thought, it's a lousy Blaupunkt and it died. I remember thinking, however, that it was strange that the radio would give me a problem at the same time as the alarm. So I continue on and everything looks fine -- no fluctuations in the tach, car has power, etc. I turn into the parking lot of a restaurant for dinner, and just as I'm pulling into a parking spot the car sputters and dies. I try to start it, and it's stone dead. Fortunately, I had AAA-Plus, and a flatbed came to take the car home.
So, it seems to me that I have a dead alternator, which is sorta surprising in that I replaced it about 10,000 miles ago (or less). The dead alarm keeps nagging at me, however. Could it be the cause of the alternator dying? Or, alternatively, could it not working (along with the dead alternator) be a symptom of a different electrical problem in the system. Or do I just have two unrelated problems that appeared at the same time?
The car is a garage queen. About 90,000 on the clock. No mods to the engine. The only electrical mods of which I'm aware are the alarm, Sucro headlight relays, a fuse for the front a/c blower, an fan for the extra front a/c condenser (fused), and a direct power line from the battery to the radio (fused).
Any thoughts on what might be going on here would be appreciated. Thanks, guys!
