Gremlins. Where should I look?
 

Okay, heres the problem, new battery and wire from battery to alt but my volts float between 12 and 14. The volts dip sometimes when I hit the breaks, or when I'm sitting still. They drop if i hold the window button to long but go right back up. There is very little movement while driving. last week it dropped enough to kill my battery. Replaced the battery which was only two months old and could no longer hold a charge. My question is where would be some good places to start troubleshooting?

Have you cleaned the battery (+) & (-) terminals at both ends thouroghly? Remove the alternator to a test facility (Autozone) maybe and load test it. You have to know if it's generating power at no load & fully loaded. And then finally you could have a parasitic drain on the electrical system, but make sure the battery, alternator, and interconnecting leads (cabling) are tight, clean, intact before doing any thing else.

I did have the alt tested and it was fine. I have cleaned the battery connections and even replaced the alt. wire. Would I need to replace the wire to the starter as well? And were would i find the other ends of the battery terminals?

I would check make sure the contion is good ie thier no heavy build up oil and other type stuff and just as precious make sure that you dissconnect the battery make sure you don't get zap if you going to be play with connection. One thing to look for drain look stereo esp if it has been modded at all , or any other system that has been modded

Well as far as mods, I swapped in a factory radio from a 99 grand am with a flickering display, added power mirrors and auto dimming as well as power seats. So I will disconnect each one by one to see if it goes away.

Sounds like a good place to start. Keep us up on how you make out.

Re: Gremlins. Where should I look?
 

Do an alternator output test. It sounds like yours is barely able to provide enough power to keep the car running, let alone charge the battery, and your new battery finally pooped out from having to carry more than its share of the load. Bonnevilles like to eat their alternators.

-- Andy (on AC-Delco alternator #4)

Okay everythings been disconnected but no change. I did notice when cleaning my battery connections that the wire running to the firewall had some corrsionthat looked like it could be inside the wires, I'll try to clean that area or I may have to replace it.

Whoops, sorry, I missed your reply where you said you'd had the alternator tested already; found it just now.

I would try prying the center bolt out of each side-terminal battery connector and see how clean the contact ring really is, where it touches the underside of the bolt head. You can get corrosion build up in there that you can't see, and all the cleaning of the visible surface on the outside won't help that.

If you press upwards on the end of the bolt with your thumb as you unscrew the bolt with a small socket wrench, you can work it out of the connector. Then go in with a little wire terminal brush to clean it up. After cleaning all the contacts, wipe on some dielectric grease if you've got some, or Vaseline if you don't.

-- Andy

Trace them out hand over hand. 8)