My car keeps dying! Help!, I think it's an electrical problem. Options

[twofoldjunk]

Hey guys,

Well, my car died. I believe it's an electrical problem, but would love to hear your opinions on what it could be.

So I had an issue starting my car the other day. Cold morning in Socal (40's or so), turned my key in the ignition, nothing happened with the starter. Lights came on, radio, etc. But the starter doesn't turn. I turn my key to off, try again and it starts up fine. I figure it's a fluke.

This morning, cold again (40's or so), turn my key in the ignition, same thing. Lights on, radio, etc, and this time, the starter doesn't come on at all. Try it a bunch of times, nothing.

I get my girlfriend's car and jump the battery. I figure it's a weak battery, maybe it's not getting enough charge or whatnot.

Start driving to work, and notice electrical problems. Panel is flickering, my lights dim when I hit the turn signals, my lights start to dim, and while coasting to a stop at a stoplight, my engine shuts off and electrical power dies. No headlights, no panel lights, radio dead. Even my emergency lights don't come on when I try them.

Get my gf to come out and jump my car, we drive halfway back home, car dies again. Same thing, slowing to turn, hit my signal lights and car shuts off, electrical dies.

We jump the car again and make it home. I'm going to have it towed to my mechanic for service.

Now, here's a few things that I've done recently:
1. New radio installed. I threw in a nice Sony headunit to replace my factory unit, probably sucking up more juice than before.
2. New indiglo gauges. I installed indiglo face gauges in the last month. Again, probably sucking up more juice. I've noticed some issues with this too, the gauges would flicker out occasionally, I initially chalked this up to a bad ground, but having fixed the ground issue, this was still happening. Maybe it's not getting enough voltage to run.
3. Recently moved. I have a very short commute to work now. 10 minutes and I'm there. My car isn't getting much time on long stretches of highway anymore, maybe putting 10 miles of driving a day. My battery may not be charging fully.
4. The battery is new. Date of installation of my battery is 1/11. I was initially hoping it was just a battery issue, but I just changed it out. It's possible it is a defective battery from the factory, but who knows.

My thought is that I have a bad alternator, I don't remember when it was last serviced. Either that, or the factory alternator is not powerful enough to charge the battery fully with the short commute times and higher electrical needs.

Any thoughts guys?

Thanks.

[RabidTRD]

Don't get too worried. It's a bad alternator. Not something you did, just car age. 100% positive. When you get a new one, make sure they fully charge the battery and test it to make sure the alt didn't kill the batt too.

If it was just a bad batt, the car wouldn't have cut out on you while you were driving. Just when you shut it off, the next time you tried to start it, the car would do nothing.

This post has been edited by RabidTRD: Dec 19, 2011 - 11:33 AM