Hey guys, this is my first post here. I'm part of clublexus.com (another car forum) and ive learned a lot about my rx300 from them so i figured id give you guys a shot about my girlfriends elantra

She has a 2000 elantra, on thursday night she broke down. The car wasnt getting enough electricity. The battery wasnt charging basically and it seemed as though the alternator was dying. They went and had the battery tested and it tested good. The following day we jumped it, drove a little and jumped it again several times to get it to go about 5 miles. It seemed as though the car was running on what juice was in the battery alone. Once we got it to autozone they tested the alternator and concluded it was bad. We bought another one and installed it. We aqlso had them hook the battery up on the charger before putting it in and firing it up. We started the car and had the guy from autozone test everything. He said that the votls (i think) or maybe the amps coming from the alternator was low, it was running at a 12 and its supposed to be at 14. The test was conducted by hooking up straight to the eyelets on the battery. Since then she is able to drive the car during the day as long as nothing in the car is running but if you turn the lights on or anything else for that matter it starts dying down. Her brother had told us about a 100a fuse to change out, we bought one and checked it out, fuse wasnt bad but we changed it out anyway. The only thing we can think of is it has to be somewhere in the wiring. What do you guys think?

 

If you are only getting 12 volts to the battery, then it's not charging. Either you have a bad wire, or the alternator didn't work. Fuses either work or they don't. Take it to another Autozone just to have it checked.

 

UPDATE: so my girlfriend told me the belt was squeaking some here and there, i tightened up the belt going to the alternator and drove it to autozone to do some testing on the alternator, on the way there i turned on just about everything, full blast heat, lights, radio, using the power windows, etc. seemed to be working better since i did that, got to autozone and it came back over 14 volts. looks like it just needed tightened. i think were going to replace the battery soon though, hers may be a little on the weak side, thanks for all of your help and advice