Can a bad car battery cause a running car to die even if the alternator is good?

While trying to start my car one day I found that the battery appeared completely dead and the car would not start and no electronics would come on. I had someone jumpstart the car and it ran fine for about 10 minutes and then died completely again. During this 10 minutes the inside lights were flickering. I figured that the alternator was bad, but after trying a new battery first the car seems to be running fine. I was wondering if a bad battery can cause a car that is running to die even if the alternator and other electrical components are fine.|||Yes that can cause your car to not run. The alternator helps the battery charge up and keeps the car running. If the battery is dead it is working harder to try and charge it when all it is doing is working for nothing. With the new battery in the alternator has something to charge so there for it will stay running.|||Yes ....it can. especially at night when your battery needs to run your lights. all the alternator does is keep the charge that is in the battery....if theres no juice in the battery theres nothin for the alternator to charge....hence...dead..hope this helps|||I just spent $200 on a new alternator only to find out it was a bad battery.





I replaced the battery, about 50 bucks, and the vehicle runs like new.





So, simple answer to you question - yes.|||yes a dead battery is too much for an alternator your dead batt.will draw everything down you need a little charge in the battery or wait for the car to charge the battery with no lights and misc. on|||Unlikely that the battery is the cause. The only way I could see it happening is if a really new car that has the pcm controlled alternator. Thus, the low voltage from just a jump start didn't allow the pcm to energize the alternator. If not a newer car, expect further troubles untill you replace the alt.|||No. The battery is used to start the engine. Once the engine is running, the alternator or generator run the electricity. It may be the alternator going bad. The only other part I can think of would be the coil, when it goes, a running car shuts down. A new battery will work for a little while as long as you turn on no lights, radio or any elec. Once you do, if it shuts down again, your coil is shot.


Sky|||Im sure you have already been told but, you have a bad altenator...the reason it ran fine with the new batt was cause the car was useing the new batt for its sourse of power, when it is gone the car will die again...|||Yup. Some alternators(not all) require battery juice for the alternator to produce juice.|||Happened to my car. Suddenly stopped moving about 10 feet out of the parking space. Got a jump, drove around the block, it died. Got another, and got it back to the parking space out of the way before it died again. CAA guy said it was just an incredibly dead battery - everything else was A-OK. And once I got a new battery in there, I haven't had any more problems. Weird thing was that there was no warning at all.; we hadn't left the lights on, or the door ajar, or anything. It just died. No previous troubles starting it or anything.|||Seems to me that the battery has nothing to do with the continued operation of the car.. Maybe the battery being bad broke the circuit, so the car died? The car runs off the alternator, not the battery once started|||i believe it dose|||I'm still thinking your alternater is bad, and the new battery is disguising the problem for awhile.|||yep,,,too much strain on the alternator|||yes|||yes. when u start the car youre batery is what turns it on when u turn the key. when ur driving the batery probably died again because it was a bad charge.