Electrical activity - pressing brakes, turning on fan - causes lights to blink briefly

Don't sweat,..it just needs a cash-injection innoculation.

Indeed, that is what it sounds like. A car battery is a massive accumulator of electrical power. It is designed to handle the 'inrush' current of things like lights 'cold-filament' and the blower motor starting current. These are current spikes lasting a few millisecs (haven't actually measured how long these spikes persist, so I'm guessing here) should be handled no-prob by the battery,..then the alternator takes over supplying 'running current' for these facilities.

The alternator on its own cannot handle these temporary spikes of demand, and simply bails out during this time causing a temporary interruption to

*all* the circuits it was supplying (hence the engine stall). It's real job is to supply the running current of these peripherals and recharging of the battery after starting,......so it sounds like maybe a bad connection around the fusible link (this link passes all current to the cars electrical circuits except the starter) close to the battery or there is an intermittant battery clamp (on the +ve or -ve post)

A simple bad battery clamp can produce these symptoms as well.

You have to consider the fact it maybe intermittant.

Another way to check for bad connections is to: run the engine,..then turn on all the car's facilities. If there is a resistive connection it will start to get hot and cause a reduction in supply volts. Another indicator is the blower-motor's speed slowing down as other high-current circuits are turned on. Some slowing is normal as regulation is not perfect,..but a marked reduction is not.

Jason

How old is the battery? How many miles on the alternator?

I like to use a temperature compensated hydrometer to check the individual battery cells. That will show you the actual state of charge for each by reading the specific gravity, ie., the amount of acid in solution.

My knowledge is for the Camry, so assuming your car is similar. Around

150,000 miles, replace the alternator brushes. But your symptoms sound more like the battery - a weak cell, internal intermittent short, or the obvious - poor connection at one end of the cables. They need to be clean and tight.

Searching "temperature compensated hydrometer" on the Internet last year, think I paid around $25 (USD), and as I've said - found it useful. Enabled me to replace the old battery when I noticed gradual decline in state of charge before outright failure, and helped me discover the brand new battery of recent manufacture date wasn't being fully charged due to my many short trips. So I charged the battery until the state of charge came up and changed my driving habits to compensate. If you shine a flashlight into the battery cells, the plates should be relatively clean and free of white crusty accumulation. And of course, you may need to top up the level with distilled water if required.

I think its been ten years or more that i saw a battery that you could open the cells for cars. They are Sealed, you cant ck cells.

Batterys can go bad in less than a year. My local 76 station sold me some crap 2 died in less than a year, then he gave me a full refund.

Did you get a new alternator. Rebuilt stuff is Rarely rebuilt right, usualy a customer rip off. Get someone to load test everything, its usuly Free. Because you just say you think your battery is dead, they Know they have a sale. But Id be there for the test and watch. It could be a bad ground or loose connection to.