I have a 2000 neon and the battery light kicks on every so often. sometimes it will stay on and others when i restart the car it goes off. Sometimes my dash shuts off. Lights stay on like seat belt light and what not but the odometer and gauges stop working. Also when the dashboard dies it kills power to my amp. Its intermittent and temporary lasts usually about 30 seconds tops, but this is getting rather annoying. Any ideas on what could be the problem? Thanks

 

could be the battery, alternator, or a grounding issue. what size amp do you have?

 

That's your charging system light so either your charging system is weak or you are drawing too much current for the system.

 

amp is a 400 watt. ive had it in the car for a year. the alternator is new i checked the charging system alternator works. battery is good. i looked over the wiring no issues as far as i could tell. Someone told me that its possible the battery has a bad cell?? Im not sure all i know it its on when i start my car and drive for about 10 min or so and then goes off and occasionally comes back on at this point. dash and amp havent been acting goofy lately but the light still pops on

 

You can check the battery with a voltage meter to see if it's pushing what it should. Set the meter to DC and, with the car off, put the right probes on the proper terminals on the battery...should read about 12V. Start the car and repeat the probing (heh heh) and it should read 14V if the alternator is doing it's job. How's the serpentine belt btw? It sounds like a stupid question, but if the belt is old and slipping even a little, it may not charge the system correctly at all times. Check those things, if nothing pans out, I'm no more help to you, lolz.

 

just replaced the belts actually. less than 3 weeks ago. I am pretty sure the belts are tight enough. tho i might just give it a little snugging up to see if that changes anything.

 

If it had a dead cell you would know right away.

How much vibrations does your system create?

 

Well, I'm out of ideas then lol. The belt should be an auto-tension I think, so not sure you can tighten it. Good luck figuring this out though. Wish I could be more help.

 

the drive belt is auto tension the alternator belt isnt. and not a whole lot of vibration why would vibration be an issue?

 

Don't over-tighten anything "just because." That's how things break. Is any of the wiring to the battery temperature sensor bad? I'm going to assume that all proper battery and battery cable checks have been done and all is well with those, yes?