Battery or alternater

[in_si1ence]

so now im confused... What is the best way to check it with out bringing it anywhere? so i can do it at home

[parkerbink]

He is WRONG I did it last week to check my alternator and am running fine (it turned out to be a bad ground)

I would not tell anyone to do anything I had not done myself.

Take it to a shop that is the 100% safest way to deal with it.

[in_si1ence]

o and btw any one need any tan front seats or a Shock mount case? check the classifieds section..

[arsevader]

I have done this and not only not fried anything but diagnosed a functional or non functional alternator, but thanks for your input.

Good luck with that. :) I'll take you to vegas and use you as my lucky charm.

This test is really only useful on older cars without computers. Why not just use a multimeter and not run the risk? It's a 2 second test.

Though as Axxe suggests a load test is a more complete test.

James

[arsevader]

He is WRONG I did it last week to check my alternator and am running fine (it turned out to be a bad ground)

I would not tell anyone to do anything I had not done myself.

Take it to a shop that is the 100% safest way to deal with it.

Just because you were lucky this time doesn't mean it's right to do it.

Just Google "disconnect battery when running" and you'll see the hundreds of warnings about this, including pages from the Bentley site.

James

[arsevader]

so now im confused... What is the best way to check it with out bringing it anywhere? so i can do it at home

Multimeter is the quickest simple test. At least you can see if the alternator is putting out any voltage at all.

James

[parkerbink]

Thats great and why I said he should take it to a shop. I have had this and many cars with computers and have never damaged any electronics.

[chuckybob]

go to sears and have your battery load tested, it's free.

[nefarious7907]

advance auto parts does battery testing and alternator and starter testing free of charge. Just make sure the guy who is working the machine knows the difference between pos and neg and youll be fine.