Back in August (2013) was my very first similar issue. I was in the last hour of a 5 hour trip when all of the sudden, my battery dash light illuminates. Shortly after, all of my cluster lights (including the battery light) start flickering. Not completely off and on, but more like low to high. Front and back blinkers and headlights as well.

I immediately unplugged phone, turned off radio and dimmed all lights.. preparing for my whole car to shut off which wouldn't of been cool because I was on the PA Turnpike/NE Extension and there was no shoulder for 20 miles. Fortunately I made it the last hour home.

The next day I started the car up, No flickering. Drove around for a little while, nothing. The following day I wasn't so lucky, started it up and the flickering continued. After a few more days, I got used to the flickering.. Not sweeping it under the rug by any means, but I've been doing a lot of body work on this specific car that I was giving priority as oppose to this new issue.

Which brings me to my now current main issue. A few days ago, I'm driving.. Still flickering.. I come to a stop sign, when I accelerate I don't even think I made it to 2nd gear and the car completely goes dead. And I mean everything. I coasted as far over as I could on a no-shoulder stretch of road.

It was pretty crazy for me because it was getting dark and my car's hazard lights wouldn't even work, nothing. A friend came and hooked up with jumper cables. After about 5-10 min I tried starting it and it turned over but sputtered dead almost instantly. I had interior light and cluster gauge working but the hazard lights still wouldn't fire up.

After waiting about 15 more minutes I tried starting it again with success. This time I got right on the gas with it though. Hazard light fired up while it was running. Had it running for maybe a minute and a half but it died again instantly once I disconnected the jumped cables.

I ultimately called triple a and had the car towed back to my house where it sits now. Since then I have uninstalled the battery and hooked it up to trickle charge. Also checked the best I could for bad connections and didn't find any.

I let the trickle go over night and re-installed it the next day. I get interior lights, cluster gauges light up no problem. But the car doesn't even try to turn over. I mean, it tries to try. It doesn't even crank, But I can hear power when I twist the key.

Volts look good at a steady 12.8


What could be my issue?


Additional Info:

2004 Dodge Stratus Sedan 2.4L DOHC X SERIES VIN

 

Alternator......
Had similar situation on my 2005 XST.
If you want to make sure start car in park measure battery terminal. Volts should be between 13.5 and 14.5 anything out of those spec is the alternator..you should be albe to start with someone jumping you but as soon as they remove the the cable your car may die anyway .. so.... remove alternator and take it to autozone to have it tested. also bring your battery to have them charged it

You may need to buy a special tool to loosen the belt tensioner not too much space n there. Harbor freight ans a cheap one for $ 12.00 is basically a flat bar with a 3/8 socket wrench **** that fir inside the tensioner.

Good Luck

 

In the last part of my post.. I stated that car wouldn't start.


It ended up being a bad connection at the distribution terminal. After testing all the connections individually with a volt meter, I found that the power cord between the battery's positive and the distribution terminal was the problem.

I took a dremel to the connectors and got as much silver showing as I could, the connected everything back up. car started with no problem.

Now, I think I have another problem.. Maybe the alternator. First thing after I started the car I looked for the flickering symptoms which I had since August. It was there but it was very slight. When I revved up to 1500rpm the flickering disappeared. I haven't had it running enough to say if it's definitely there or gone. Will be able to answer that later on tonight hopefully.

So now that I got the car running, I went and tested the alternator. And getting unstable readings. I'm used to volts jumping between 13.9 and 14.3 but should the volts go down to 10.6 and 11.2 even if only for a few seconds. Or is that a tell tale sign that my alternator is going?

I'll be taking my alternator into AutoZone tonight to get the 3-way diagnostics from them. But I'm thinking I might have to put in a Mechman order in the very near future.

 

Went to AutoZone and got my alternator tested.. passed!

So I decided to replace the power and ground cables going from the battery in the wheel well to the distribution terminal. I also incorporated another project I was going to do and that was to perform an top post style terminal conversion with military style terminals.

I've yet to mod the starter cable. I have plans to clip the joint and just put a new connector on the end. Unfortunately, replacing that whole wire looks like a pain without a lift.

So, I converted the battery to top post style terminals and replaced the cables from the battery to the distribution terminals with 100% oxygen-free copper 0 gauge cables.

Absolutely no flickering after a 1hr test. (normally would start flickering within 10-15min)