Questions and Answers

Pontiac Needs A Charge

Q. I own a '94 Bonneville w/ a V6 engine (automatic) recently the check gages light came on and I noticed as I was driving for about the next 15 minutes my battery meter gradually went down until my lights flickered. I turned the car off and the battery was dead. I jumped the battery and it did the same thing. Do you think that my battery is bad or my alternator?

Thanks for your help,
Ben

A. Definitely a bad alternator Ben. The light came on to tell you something was wrong with the charging system. When the alternator stopped working, you were running on the battery. As it wore down, the voltmeter showed the decrease and when it didn't have enough juice to run the fuel pump and the ignition system, the vehicle died.

An alternator is easy to replace. If you decide to do it yourself, be sure you disconnect the negative battery cable before you do anything. After that it's pretty straightforward to take out the old one and install a new one.