I had my alternator rebuilt about 3 months ago because it was dying. It worked great until this morning. Today I went out to start my car, and it wouldn't start up by itself. I had to get in and give it gas to keep it alive. It started up once, then died like I let off the key early, but I didn't. So I got in, gave it gas and it stayed alive. It was idling really low, at about 500rpm. If you give it gas, the lights would be brighter, and when I was driving home, if you slowed or stopped they would go dim. Another factor that could matter is that it's the coldest today that it has ever been since I've had my car, but just by 5 degrees or so compared to a normal start a few days ago.

I have 3 days left on my warranty, and I'm off from work today so I'm pissed that I'll probably be wasting my two days off with this. Any chance it's not the alternator? If if could be something else, please give advice to check it, but I'm pretty sure it is the alternator. It's about 10 degrees outside today, so I hope to spend as little time as possible working on my car.

 

I'd say it's something else. Have you checked out that battery?

 

It could be the cable running from the back of the alternator to the battery.

 

I checked the battery and cables. Battery is new, alternator is rebuilt. The plug in the back of the alternator was loose. The clip wasn't on all the way, but it's really hit or miss, it works great one time, next time it's messed up so I guess I'll run it and see how it works out for the next couple of days.