Okay, so I purchased a beautiful Crossfire out of Texas. Here are the givens;
1) Registering the car in TN is a pain. 😉
2) The car sat in the garage for a couple of weeks while title issues were resolved.
3) I went today to take the car to register it. With a battery that’s about 2 months old, it failed to start. I connected my charger & noted that it was only showing 11.3V. After a short charge cycle, I was on my way with no problems.
4) After I found out that the registration rules changed, I “happily” left the county clerk to fix the issue. The car started right up.
5) I drove maybe five miles when I hear a clicking noise and the spoiler light comes on. I push the button and the car instantly dies.
6) After getting a jump from a police officer, I pulled into a gas station to idle the car before driving on.
7) The car idled for maybe two minutes, the same clicking noise and the battery light came on. The car died in about another minute.
8) Once the tow truck arrived, he checked the battery... it was 11.3V again.
9) When I got home, after making a G&T, I connected my charger up and ran a full charge cycle. It was 15.3A & the finished charge was 12.4V, then 12.3... down to 12.0V when I stopped monitoring it.
So, my thoughts are 1) it’s a bad alternator, but the battery voltage is odd, 2) There’s a bad cell in this 2 month old battery, or 3) There’s a computer issue (the first ever for this car, if so).
I’m planning to take the battery to a store tomorrow to check for a bad cell. I’m also going to clean the posts.
Does anyone have any other suggestions or thoughts on the problem?
Thanks,
- Brian