Thread: Help! car only runs for 5 minutes

Your alternator is dead. You have a really hardy battery that is trying its best, but it can't hang.

Quote: Originally Posted by B3NN3TT Your alternator is dead. You have a really hardy battery that is trying its best, but it can't hang. Bingo.

The battery will build up a little charge while it struggles and your alt drains the hell out of it. If you keep starting it sooner or later it won't start at all.

AH Shoot! oh well, thanks for the info fellow cougar owners. one other thing, ever since my car died. ive been getting a wierd popping noise. almost like piston slapping but it goes away after about a minute. could that be related to the alternator too?

Doubtful. That sounds completely unrelated. Make sure your spark plugs are all torqued down.

Could be pre-detonation during warm up. I think this is pretty normal. Hard to say, just guessing what noise you mean