First, a small bit about the car. I have a 2000 Kia Sportage with about 67,000 miles on it that I maintain myself for the most part. Oil and battery were both recently replaced and I had a mechanic replace the timing belt a couple miles after 60k. Besides some small things here and there, the car runs great for its age. Here’s the bad part. My girlfriend was driving it a few days ago when I was out of town and it stopped accelerating after she had made it through an intersection. Luckily, she was able to pull the car over and put on the hazards. Her parents came out after she called and she was unable to start the car, so they called a cousin who was nice enough to tow it to her parents house. When I got back I went to check on the car and tried to start it. It sounds like its trying to crank but it just sounds like it never quite gets there. I haven’t used a voltmeter to check the charge on the battery yet, but my dad thinks that the alternator went and if the battery has been drained, I’ll be inclined to agree with him. However, before I test the battery and pull out the alternator to have it tested, I just wanted to pick other people’s brains. Does this sound like an alternator problem?
You’re better off doing the tests. Charge the battery up and see how it starts. Then check the voltage output at the battery, That will tell you much more than us speculating on other causes. I always do this first and most of the time I can diagnose the real issue from there.
I agree. Without the tests you are wasting time and money.
Make it easy on yourself, have you tried to jump start it yet??? If you jump it and it starts, but then dies when you pull the cables (or shortly there after) you know you have a bad alternator
Thanks everyone who posted, I definitely plan on testing a couple things before I spend any money on parts. gsragtop, thanks for the idea, I had thrown it around in my head as a possibility and now I’ll do that for sure since somebody else came up with the same thing. I’ll be sure to post again after I figure eveything out, probably tomorrow night. Again, thank you for posting!