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I'm totally new to car mechanics. The other day the battery died on my 2006 Toyota Camry. I jumped it but it would not hold a charge so I brought the battery into a mechanic to have it tested and they said that there was nothing wrong with the battery itself. I then had my alternator tested which showed that that was dead. I replaced the alternator and the car runs but I don't feel certain that I have solved the actual issue, i.e., why the alternator burned out in the first place.

It's my understanding that driving on a bad battery is what causes the alternator to burn out. So, if not the battery itself than what other reasons could have caused the battery drain in the first place? The only thing that comes to my mind is a bad connection to the battery itself but I don't know what good connection looks like to compare to what the wires in my car look like. I'm attaching a picture so see if this looks bad to a person whose seen under the hood of more cars than I have. The connection to the positive end of the battery looks pretty frayed to me, but enough to cause these issues?

And then I also just wanted to check if there are any other possibilities I should be following up on.

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  • Welcome to Motor Vehicle Maintenance & Repair!
    – Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 ♦
    Commented Apr 23 at 21:09
  • Does this answer your question? Can a weak battery destroy an alternator?
    – GdD
    Commented Apr 24 at 7:54
  • Thanks for the replies. I took the car for a small test drive after getting the battery fully charged. Everything seemed to be fine at first -- I checked that the charging system light light up when the ignition key was turned to ON and that it went off when the engine started, it seemed to be driving fine -- but then I stopped at a red light and the car stalled. I could get it started again and whenever I needed to stop I put it in park and revved the engine which kept it from dying again. So maybe the battery is bad? I have it back charging again.
    – hoss
    Commented Apr 24 at 19:27
  • I don't have a multimeter yet so I'm limited in my ability to do more informative diagnostic tests. I just know from my battery charger that the battery was at least less than 75% charge after getting back from my drive but I also turned on the windshield wipers and they were going a lot stronger at this point than they were before I changed the alternator.
    – hoss
    Commented Apr 24 at 19:34

2 Answers 2

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It's possible that a bad battery There are a couple of ways your alternator could break:

  1. The electrical components could fail: the stator coil, rectifier or regulator could burn out and the alternator stops charging. The more demand on the system the harder these components have to work, in theory a bad battery can over time put such a high sustained demand on the alternator that it causes one of these components to fail. So it's possible your battery was bad and burned out your alternator, it's more likely that corrosion and plain old wear and tear would be the culprit
  2. Bearing failure: the alternator is driven, i.e. spun by the engine, connected by a belt. When your engine is running your alternator is spinning, whatever the demand. Over time the bearing on your alternator will wear and eventually fail, and the alternator stops spinning. Bearing failure has nothing to do with the demand on the alternator

Alternator failure is very common and it's almost always because of wear and corrosion rather than being induced by excessive load. If this is your car's original alternator you've done all right, I wouldn't worry about it.

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More than likely the alternator just went bad. When it did, it quit charging the battery. The battery lasted as long as it could until the vehicle systems ran the voltage down. I don't think there is anything else you need to follow up on. Make sure that the clamps at the battery are clean and tight. Check to ensure there is ~13.5-14.1vdc at the battery when the vehicle is running. As long as these check out, I doubt you have much to worry about.

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