I need someone to check out my camaro. Battery keeps draining while driving sporadically, I got a new, rebuilt alternator a year ago. I'm hoping its the alternator, but who should I take my camaro to that is reliable?

I want someone who won't drive the crap out of my car while having it in shop.

 

Could be your battery. How old is it and is it strapped down? i.e. not bouncing around your engine bay.

 

def check all your wiring.

unfortunately there are quite a few things that can cause these problems and pinpointing them could be a matter of trying a load of different things to test components.
FIRST OFF -- After you changed your alternator, did you change your battery? If not, your battery was dead and thats the reason it won't hold a charge any more even after you bought the new alternator.

If its a new battery, try these checks --
First do what kirk said, check that your battery is securely strapped/bolted/ fastened down in some manner.
Check the tightness of each of your pos/neg cables to the battery posts.
Check to see that the cable isnt cut into weird anywhere or for some reason any bare wiring isn't showing/rubbing against another metal thing (such as a brake line/cable)
Check the grounding spot for the negative cable, clean off any sitting oil/coolant/water/grime, this will probably not do much other than help it out a little.
Try running a new grounding cable. This is easily done using a 4-2 gauge wire commonly found for about 5 or so bucks at walmart. Make sure to find a spot on the chassis where it seems to really be solidly built and drill a hole through it, sand off all of the paint until you get bare metal, put the cable through there and seal it in with a nice thick bolt, to make sure it doesn't rust in the future, put some sort of anti-corrosive agent on it.
run a new ground from your alternator (it will be very small, like 12-14 gauge) Put a beefy 8-4 gauge on it and do the same thing as where you grounded the battery's negative cable

If none of these work, LMK - PM me

 

disconnect your battery and alternator and take them to advanced auto, they'll test them for free

 

removing the alt from the car to "test" it is retarted. alot of alt probs are heat related. it may charge 110 amps at 14.5 volts when cold but then it get hot and...

simple but not 100% is to just put a meter on the battery with it running and check the voltage.
100% way is to run car at 2k
apply high load with tester (to a good battery)
measure amp output and voltage.

since it is sporadic checking cables/connections is a def first like kirk said

 

the battery is new, but wasn't replaced same time as alternator. One thing though is my retained accessory power is acting weird lately. I would love to get together with someone maybe next weekend if you have time I could just show you whats going on.

When you open a door, driver or passenger power to car is supposed to cut but if you just shut car off your supposed tob e able to use radio/windows. Well even if you open door, you can still use windows/radio. This may be cause for battery dieing, but what I don't understand is if your driving, (car is a manual) You can watch the voltage meter die, but if you are at say 3000rpm and you let the motor slow you down, seems the voltage jumps back up as long as your decelerating. I can't make any sense out of it but again I'm no mechanic. If someone wants to come fix it I'll pay you a fair price. I just need help.

 

You guys are all stupid.

Take a DVM, meter the current draw from the positive post to the car while pulling fuses.

If you want someone who does good electrical work PM me... Kirk/John can give you a good referral. Oh and P057 too.

... After you do all the above of course....

 

or he can just look at his gauge cluster...?

 

Will it start putting out power if you plant the gas, also? Like, you're sitting there at 12 volts or whatever, you stomp the ags and ride it through at least an entire gear, and then it puts out power normally for a while at least? If so, thats a classic indicator of an alternator STARTING to go all shitty on you. Other than that, see above suggestions.

 

run all the tests suggested, I would replace the alt if i questioned it just for a sec - should be lifetime warranty from advance!