The other night I had a weird little electrical issue show up in my '99CSVT, and was wondering if I might be able to get some help here with the diagnosis of the issue before taking it to the dealer to get it fixed. (Money is tight, so trying to get an idea of cost before taking it in).
My initial gut feeling is probably either a battery or alternator issue... but here are the details on what is happening:
While driving down the road, all of a sudden my lights started to dim, my ABS and brake lights came on... and after awhile, My tach even died, even though the engine was still running. Not too long after, the engine stalled. Upon trying to restart it, I had no response like a dead battery.
After letting the car sit for about 1hr, it started up perfectly fine, and ran again for about another 20hwy miles, before the problems resurfaced and the car once again died on me.
For the past couple months, the only "weird" issues i've had have been the engine occasionally stalling at a red light (maybe 6 times total since June, under daily driver duty), and a couple times over the past couple months an issue where the car seemed to have a problem starting...starter would turn, however it almost seemed like the starter turning wasn't turning over the motor. I'd let it sit a minute, try again, and I'd get a proper start.
Obviously, if i'm looking at an alternator issue, i'd probably want to replace the battery as well since I've probably killed off this one.... but if it's just a weird battery issue....
Other information on the car, it has approc 115k miles on it, 99 CSVT with everything else still stock... and I just had to replace the Water pump about a month ago due to it's locking up and shredding the belt. (car overheated a little before I noticed)
Any input would be appreciated.
