I have a 2009 chevy malibu LS 2.4L. The car will run fine but after driving a few min the radio dies and all the dash lights turn on. The power steering turns off as well making it hard to turn the wheel and when making a turn the steering wheel jerks. Then my car completley turned off with the anti theft light on. Any advice please.
Here’s a video to what happened right before car turned itself off.
Sounds like the alternator is not charging the battery, you drove it until the battery ran down and the car died.
But that is a guess from someone who hasn’t done any tests. Don’t just change the alternator and battery based on this. Get the problem diagnosed first.
I just changed the alternator because it did this before and it solved the problem briefly
So one of 3 things happening… the alternator you bought just failed…
A fusible link just failed…
Or the computer that drives the alternator’s field circuit to turn the alternator on has a problem…
Maybe this is related to the bad radio install?
I could not tell by your video…were your headlights getting dimmer and dimmer before everything quit completely?
I didn’t notice them getting dimmer if they actually were
I bought the alternator off of Amazon, maybe I need a better one.
It isn’t where you bought it so much as where it came from. I use Rockauto to find the part number and sometimes order off Amazon. RA shows a range of parts that can vary in price by a factor of 3. Can you really believe that $100 alternator is as good as the $300 one? Clearly it isn’t and professionals won’t use them.
Update* I went to autozone they said my battery was no good they gave me a new one under the warranty I had. I installed it and car started up just fine. So I went back and bought a alternator from them with lifetime warranty. I’ll install it today see how this goes
IMO, you should have waited to see if battery works before buying another alternator. Your money, your choice.
Could also be a problem with the ignition switch.