Little quick help from you experienced guys, Engine Dying

[jakewied02]

So here's the deal. I start my car and the battery light is very dimly lit, the traction control light is on and then occasionally the ABS light comes up. Of course I plan to stop driving as soon as possible, but I'm on the freeway and only 2 more miles to go. Then more lights come up, first the brake fluid, and finally the "check engine". I take an early exit hoping I don't get stuck on the side of the road and just as I come off the ramp, the RPM's drop to nothing and I'm coasting. Somehow the car is still "running" - technically... but the gas does nothing and I wind up parking it. The next morning out of sheer curiosity I go back to it and it starts fine, with the same battery light dim lit, and the traction control light. I decide to try to drive the ten blocks to get it back to my house, and the whole sequence starts again leaving me 4 blocks from home. I let it sit for an hour and it starts again and I finally get in the driveway. .... Any Ideas?

[Bill R.]

the battery gets low enough you start to see various lights come on on the dash, ABS, SRS ,battery etc and when the battery gets low enough the injectors which draw a fair amount of current can't get enough power and the engine falters and dies. Pull your battery , take it home or to an autozone ,get it fully charged and tested, then replace it and check the alternator output on your car. Probably a bad alternator and you may have killed the battery completely by now as well.

So here's the deal. I start my car and the battery light is very dimly lit, the traction control light is on and then occasionally the ABS light comes up. Of course I plan to stop driving as soon as possible, but I'm on the freeway and only 2 more miles to go. Then more lights come up, first the brake fluid, and finally the "check engine". I take an early exit hoping I don't get stuck on the side of the road and just as I come off the ramp, the RPM's drop to nothing and I'm coasting. Somehow the car is still "running" - technically... but the gas does nothing and I wind up parking it. The next morning out of sheer curiosity I go back to it and it starts fine, with the same battery light dim lit, and the traction control light. I decide to try to drive the ten blocks to get it back to my house, and the whole sequence starts again leaving me 4 blocks from home. I let it sit for an hour and it starts again and I finally get in the driveway. .... Any Ideas?

[E34-520iSE]

Check the battery and engine earth cables. Mine was slack and I had similar problems. When I put my multimeter on the battery I got no output from the alternator. I thought "Nah that's BOL*@CKS", tightened the slack engine earth lead and all was well!

HTH,

Shaun