I have a 2006 Pontiac torrent that has been having a weird electrical issue lately. I bought it in Mesa Arizona with 156,000 miles on it. I did an oil change and drove it up to Oregon and then back down through Cali over to New Mexico. Out near Gallup we stopped to take a nap and when we tried to start the car it needed a jump. When we got to Albuquerque at autozone we got the batter charged from 0 to 100 and had the alternator tested. The guy said the alternator wasn’t putting out enough to charge the battery. The next day I went back to the same autozone and asked them for another test and this time everything came up clean and had them do it again with the same results. However during the start of the test the car acted like it wanted to die. After that I took it to another autozone and again everything came up clean. What issue could I be looking at?
It seems that the alternator is on its way out.
Did they test the alternator under the load? If so, you may have some sort of battery drain.
@yaser I believe they did test under load
Do you have a battery gauge in your instrument cluster? What does it show?
@mountainmanjoe
There is no battery gauge
bummer. Get yourself one of these
https://www.harborfreight.com/7-function-digital-multimeter-63759.html
@mountainmanjoe
Also quick side note. I hear a sloshing sound in the dashboard when I start my car
could be air in the cooling system. Open the bleeder valve.