I have no fuses under the passenger side dash, it is under my hood, all the fuses are fine and i sprayed them down with contact cleaner. I noticed that the ground strap was a little green, so i sprayed it down, filed off all the green and put it back together (the ground strap hooking into the right side of the block). My battery is fine, it's pumping out 12.4 volts. and the alternater is perfectly fine. I thought it might have been that, but it charges the battery and i unhooked the negative strap while the car was started, and it stayed running. When I push my brakes, every light in the car dims down. It even quit on me a few times while braking. Everything went black and it took a few good boots to the side door for everything to come back on. It also had a towing hook up for hauling behind a motor home. That was the first thing I got rid of when I first noticed that my car was dimming down when I hit my brakes. If anyone has any ideas to what is going on with my baby, please let me know. I can't afford not to have a car at the moment, so this is very very important to me. Thanks for reading this and posting a reply with suggestions.

 

1) If alternator is operating properly, you should measure a potential of about 13-14 V across the battery when the car is running. Please measure and confirm.

2) What is the measured V across the battery when a buddy steps on the brake pedal (with car running) ? Does it remain at 13-14V or does it take a big dip?

Also, it is the CURRENT that your battery supplies at its operating voltage that runs things -- not the voltage itself. If the battery cannot supply enough current when called on to do so, the voltage across it will take a nose dive as it tries in vain to meet the demand.

If the voltage dips, either your battery is unable to store enough charge (replace), or your alternator is not operating at full output (this is not uncommon).

Take to autozone or similar for a charging system check.

I suspect your alternator is on its way out. Battery may also be contributing....

Derf

 

Man, I already took it into my shop while the car was running, pushed the brakes, it dips down a bit, I believe he said by .2, and the alternater is perfectly fine. It runs at 14.2. We don't have an auto zone around here, we have a napa auto parts, but they charge quite a bit, and same with canadian tire. And it's not free, to test the battery it's 34$, to test the alternater, it's 50 something. I'm not going to pay anything if i can take it to my buddies shop. But thank you for your help anyways. I'm not going to take it to a saturn dealership because the last time I took it there, they charged me way too much in labour for putting in a front end seal in by the crankshaft. (I reciently had an oil leak). They told me it would only be around 90$. But when they were finished with it, I ended up getting a bill saying I have to pay 190$ Edited by: MCapone