I currently drive a 2004 Toyota RAV4.

A couple months ago, the battery light came on and the car stalled at a light.

However it started again just fine without any visible problems so I drove on and forgot about it.

Last week, the battery light comes on again, but this time, it’s accompanied by a whining noise. After some head scratching, turns out it’s the alternator. So I replace it.

Right after, I start the car to see if I did it right, and light is off, noise is gone, car drives around the block perfectly (Monday, 8/21).

However, the next morning (Tuesday morning, 8/22), as I’m about to head to work, my car won’t start at all. Starting it feels like the battery is dead (like it’s trying to start) and all the dash lights come on. Takes about 10 tries before it finally starts.

So I drive off to work. But something feels…off. Like the car is…weaker than usual? Not sure if that makes sense. It’s not slow per say, but something about it just felt weird. Sluggish is maybe the word.

Then as I pull into the parking lot at work, it dies halfway in the middle of the lot. All the lights come on and the car rolls to a stop.

This car is stressing me out.

So come around Tuesday evening, I get in touch with a local mechanic, who tells me about resetting the idle RPM because the battery resets when disconnected, so I gave that a try, and it felt a little more normal to drive, though that was probably just a placebo effect.

Anyway, I drove around 30 minutes to do errands, ended up at my pharmacy to get some stuff. But alas, as I was leaving the parking lot, the car decides to stall again.

I ended up getting the battery tested after the alternator was changed, and it was reported to be a good battery at about 80% capacity. Though some locations I had it tested told me that the alternator was failing a voltage regulator check, and some didn't see any fail for it. So I'm not sure what to believe there.

Then this morning (Wednesday, 8/23) I drive my car to get an oil change, and it makes it all the way there, through multiple lights, without any problems. I leave without problems as well.

However, as I near home, I turn the corner to my neighborhood, and at the stop sign, the car stalls.

Now, for some observations I made during each instance it had stalled:

- The car would be running still as I slowed to a stop.

- Throughout the stop, while my foot was on the brake, it would still be running.

- However, the stalling would either happen as I took my foot off the brake, or as soon as I hit the gas. 

- Each time the car stalls, I have to completely shut it off and remove the key, and give it another try or two to get it moving again.

Side note, I don't know how related this is to the issue at hand, but my car does have a rough idle (it shakes a lot when idle, not constant, just sporadically during the idle).

And this is probably just a coincidence, but each time the car had stalled, it would be within seconds of me turning on the radio while I was idle. Not every single time, but something I noticed, it would usually happen if I had turned on the radio when the car was at a light or such.

Hopefully someone out there has any ideas, as any mechanic I have asked either can't get my car in their shop for a month or so.

I used a friend's OBD scanner and it isn't spitting out any codes, even on stalling.