95 LeSabre - Electrical issues? Alternator or Battery?

[jacfalcon]

Here's what happened:

I was driving from Portland to Spokane for Thanksgiving, and my volt light came on about 2 hours into the 6 hour trip. I wasn't sure what that meant, but it went off again. when it came back on about 10 minutes later, I took the next exit, parked the car, and looked it up on my phone. It didn't sound like an emergency, so I went to start the car and got flashing lights and a clicking noise. I thankfully had some friends nearby, and they came and jumped my car. I drove it to Spokane just fine and didn't have problems again until Friday morning (drove it home from Spokane and several other times around Portland), when it did the flickering lights and clicking and wouldn't start. I walked to work (which thankfully is close) and came back in the evening, when I noticed my interior lights had been left on from thursday morning. I figured it was a funny coincidence.

But then I had to make the situation more convoluted. Sunday morning my room mate helped me jump my car, and after a minute I noticed a tiny bit of smoke coming from the alternator area... and realized the jumper cables were on backwards. I quickly corrected the mistake. We got the car to start after a minute of proper charging, and I noticed it was making a strange buzzing/humming noise I'd never heard, and I got out and it was coming from the Alternator area. We drove it to church, 25 minute drive, mostly freeway, and near the end of the freeway drive the volt light came on. As we were turning into the church parking lot, I slowed down to make the final turn, and the car died, and any attempt to start it was met with the flashing lights and clicking. Pushed it to the side of the road, went to church, and a friend jumped my car after and then I drove it home.

I ordered a multimeter on Amazon Prime Now that should be here by noon, and I found some guides to testing the battery and alternator, but I was wondering what you guys recommend? I've got very little experince with cars, mainly just what I've learned fixing my LeSabre. Batteries start at $110 and Alternators start at about $60, but I don't wanna just start shelling out money.

Thanks!

 

[ryenie]

From my own experience, the battery light means the battery is not receiving a charge from the alternator. The symptoms seem to back this up. The car was running off of the battery which is what caused it to be too low to start the car back up. You can have the alternator and battery tested at an auto parts store, which i would recommend before replacing any parts (once an electronic component is installed, you can't return it except for a warranty swap). But the alternator would be the first thing I would have tested. Not sure that a multimeter would give you as thorough results as a bench test performed at a parts store would. You could check the voltage output, but that's about it.