My Grandsons crossfire has sputtered and lost power while driving about four times now. He says he shuts it off and restarts it and it is fine for awhile. He also said his headlights dim when this happens. It has only happened at night but then he mostly drives at night.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

I would start by having the battery and alternator checked . ..

 

Can a person check the alternator themselves?

 

ZERACER
Take the car to any national/regional auto parts store and they will test the alternator or battery for FREE. If it is the alternator, there is a difference between the SRT6 (8 ribs) model vs. the Limited/SE/Base model (6 ribs) on the pulley.
Good luck....
Dennis
DTMenace

 

Thanks for the info.

 

sometimes it’s hard to find the 8 rib pulley. I ordered one for the SRT and received the 6 rib so I just swapped the pulley

it takes 10 min tops to change them out

 

You may never get that pulley removed with a hand wrench; Use an impact wrench and it will loosen the nut to remove the pulley.
An easy check of your alternator at your home; simple place a volt meter selected to AC voltage on the positive and negative terminals of your battery and with the car running if you get any AC voltage at all your alternator needs rebuilding or replacement. The auto parts store will check more than just that, but it is a quick easy test you can do with minimal tools at home.

 

For the most part, yes. Regardless of the condition of the battery, the alternator should have capacity to bring the battery terminal voltage to at least 13.5 or 13.8 at idle. By the time the engine gets to 2000 rpm, system voltage should be 14.2 or a bit higher. Even if the load is great, or the battery is really wimpy, at 2000 rpm, the alternator should be able to produce 90% or more of it's rated output; enough to raise system voltage above 14.0

Diagnosing an alternator that is draining a battery (it's rare these days but it does happen) is a little more involved.

Finding an alternator with a bad diode (or set of bad diodes) can be harder, a set of bad diodes would mean as much as 30% reduction in output - the alternator may not keep up at idle, but should at 2000 rpm.

But in the case of the two alternators that failed on me, they produced NO output - system voltage was around 11 with the engine running. That can't be if the alternator is producing current.

 

Thanks, My Grandsons crossfire has sputtered and lost power while driving about four times now. He says he shuts it off and restarts it and it is fine for awhile. He also said his headlights dim when this happens. It has only happened at night but then he mostly drives at night. It is an intermittent issue.