Alternator issues?

[Jerad]

Hey guys... I was driving home last night and without warning (no battery light) everything began to dim and my climate control started to die on me... classic signs of a dead battery right? The battery is like 2 months old though, so I'm thinking its the alternator, but last time my alternator died, the battery light came on.. any help would be appreciated.. thanks!

 

[projectSHO89]

Get a voltmeter and measure the battery voltage. It should be 12.6V or so with the engine off and a decent charge. Flip the headlights on and it should only drop a few tenths of a volt over a period of several minutes. A bad battery will usually quickly drop by at least 1 volt when the load of the headlights are applied.

You might want to verify that the BATT light works during lamp the self test before starting.

Might be a connection problem. The voltmeter will tell you where to look. If the batt voltage checks good above, start looking for a voltage drop across a cable or connection while a load is applied.

Steve