'00 Limited -rapid battery drain while driving

[5carfamily]

Any help (& quickly) is greatly appreciated - we're on vacation.

Drove 220 miles and when we arrived to our destination we were good samaritans and gave a stranded person a jump.

About 2 hours later we went to dinner & picked up groceries (2 stops) and returned to our condo. When we were turning in the drive, the trac off light came on and the ABS light came on. We turned off the car and attempted to restart - car would not restart.

Paid $40 for a cab ride to get a new battery (10am) and the car started fine. Tonight we went for dinner and sightseeing (about an hour drive)and while driving down the road (10 pm) the radio turned off, the trac off light came on, the ABS light came on, the air bag light came on, the panel went dead, the tail lights went out, and the head lights went off. We managed to pull into a parking lot before the battery completely died. And to top it all off, the theft light started flashing along with the flashers.

We're 35 miles from the nearest dealership - any ideas??

[12Ounce]

Its gonna be hard to analyze without your having a voltmeter. If you had a voltmeter you could check your alternator-to-battery output. Across the battery terminals there should be about 14 volts while the engine is idling ... if all is well. If there is a AutoZone nearby they can do a pretty good job of checking this for you.

Do you have someone who can give you a "jump" to get you started? You may want to lift a battery cable until then .... saving what is in the battery now.

If I have to guess, your jumping off the other guy did one of two things:
1. In the process, some cables were loosened ... easy to check.
2. In the process, some resistors were burned "in two" in the cabling between the alternator and the battery ....or the alternator got creamed ..... either could only happen if the engine was running while the jumping took place.

[garync1]

I thinking it could be the alternator as well look for autoparts place and they should be able to check it for you for free..