My wife called across the kitchen to me “our friend at church says her car’s alternator died, can you go save her?” Once word gets out that you are a “Car Guy” this kind of thing is normal. Luckily my wife understands that my mechanical gift must be shared, so the project begins. A quick phone call to the young lady nets the year/make/model of the car (a 2006 Toyota Matrix) and the suspected problem. The car was electrically dead at the moment, but the previous night she noticed that the headlights were growing increasingly dimmer as she drove. Sounds like a classic case of a dead alternator (or voltage regulator, but they are almost all internal today). Continue reading Battery Corrosion Can Make Good Parts Look Bad