Hello and thanks in advance!

If anyone can shed some light on my situation I would be very grateful!

I am not sure what is going on with my 2000 Dodge Stratus 2.4L DOHC. Tonight, I was on my way home. I did a lot of driving today and it was cloudy so I used my headlights most of the day. Radio was on as well. Rear defrost was used and so was the heat/defrost.

The battery "dummy" light came on this afternoon. So I took the car to Autozone. I asked if they could check my Battery and Alternator. They took out this big machine, hooked it to my Battery and the digital machine said my Battery was bad. He wouldn't check the alternator. I asked the Autozone employee if my Alternator could be bad, and causing my Battery to lose it's charge. He said it's a possibility, and told me that the VOLTAGE REGULATOR was inside the alternator. If it isn't can someone give me instruction to find it. I have looked as I have read other posts like this where members said the Voltage Regulator is external and it is near the Fuze box located under the hood. What am I looking for? There is no fuse that says Voltage Regulator or has anything to do with the electrical system so I am assuming Autozone is right and the Voltage Regulator is really inside the Alternator. Anyone?

I had my daughter and girlfriend with me so I drove a few miles to a friends house and we hung there for a few. I went outside when we left, started the car and the light came on. So we drove, the car was running fine for about 10 miles and the lights started to dim. I just wanted to make it home and was almost home. Next thing I know, the transmission down shifts and I lose just about all power but the car is still driving. I had to tach around 3000-4000 as it wouldn't up shift. (Never had tranny problems, it is great).

Then all of a sudden, it kicked back into it. The transmission started working fine, lights were bright as ever. I got home, shut the car off. Fired it back up and the Battery light was off.

It is completely puzzling. Is my alternator going? Do I have a bad battery? Is it both? Should I replace both?

Again, thank you in advance. I hope someone can shed some light on my situation, and also tell me precisely where the voltage regulator is.

Regards

 

Anoyone???

 

Take the alternator and the battery off and carry them to an auto parts store and have them both tested by themselves.
I found out a while back on my old thunderbird that a bad battery can kill an alternator and a bad alternator can kill a battery.
On my car the battery went bad and I replaced it.
Then the alternator wouldn't charge the new battery so I replaced it.
Then the new battery started spewing acid out of the vents when I started the car with the new alternator on it.

So to sum it up, the old battery that was bad cooked the old alternator, the old alternator that was now bad cooked the new battery, and the new battery that was now bad cooked the new alternator.
I got them both replaced at the same time under their warranties and it was all good.

I believe the reason your lights and everything came back to life was from that stint of 3000-4000 rpm driving. That tells me that the alternator is working, just not well enough.
I don't know why it would downshift and you lost all power for a bit though.

When the alternator died on my old car I was an hour away from home and it was dark. I would gun it until I hit 60mph then I dropped it in neutral and revved it up until I hit about 50mph, then i gunned it back up to 60mph and I did that all the way home because my alternator was charging a little bit but it wasn't putting out 14 volts like it should have been.

Also, about the second post, this forum is not very active between 1am and 8am because most people are sleeping, just give it a day or two and you'll get some responses.

 

Thanks for the response.

I went and replaced the TCM Relay this morning but I don't know how to test and see if the old one is bad. However, the transmission is shifting a lot better then it ever has. And it shifted great before. Could the transmission draw that much power that it would cause those issues?

I am going to do what you said Sheriff. Great idea! Thanks and anyone else that can come to a conclusion that would be much appreciated!