i got a 95 ford probe gt, the battery read low all of a sudden and then the car decided not to start, so i said ok i went and got a brand new battery, put it in and the gauge is still reading low. the battery is wired up for a sub an amp but its not plugged in. what could this be?

 

it's a probe?

 

i got a 95 ford probe gt, the battery read low all of a sudden and then the car decided not to start, so i said ok i went and got a brand new battery, put it in and the gauge is still reading low. the battery is wired up for a sub an amp but its not plugged in. what could this be?

 

So, I see you put the problem in BOLD.


but shit. a car does not "decide" not to start. Chase everything, from the alternator up...considering the battery is new. Fuse? Solenoid? is your red to red, black to black? More then likely the flux capacitor.

 

thanks but you didnt have to be a dick.

 

What do you mean by reading "low"? And how are you reading it, with a multimeter or a gauge installed in the car? What's happening when you try to start the car?

 

there is a stock battery gauge. there is a H then normal then Low. whenever it reaches low and i try to start it, it try to start and makes the clicking noise but never starts. i jump started the car 2 nights ago and it turned on but whenever i turned on the lights, the lights dimmed and the car shut off.

 

I'd check the alternator's voltage output as well as the regulator if it's external.

 

Sounds like a ground problem, check for corrosion at the battery terminals and also where the battery ground attaches to the chassis or wherever..
The reason I say this is that it sounds like everything is being affected, the car isn't starting, etc. I've seen cars where everything works fine but won't start because of a bad cable or ground; the cable/ground will let enough current pass to power all of the accessories but not enough current to start the car, and everything will die during attempted starting. This will also affect charging, because current can't properly flow from the alternator to the battery.

The "Click" with a fresh battery is the telltale sign there.
Did the car actually start with the fresh battery, and the gauge was still reading low? if it did, you may just need a new battery and you might have a problem somewhere with the stock gauge cluster, etc., but it would still point to a power delivery problem somewhere. Don't you love high quality Ford/Mazda electrical systems?

If the alternator was bad, the new battery would still read fine on the gauge but wouldn't be getting charged, so don't worry about that for now. The alternator won't affect the engine starting on a fresh battery either.

Anyway, grab a multimeter (that stock battery gauge you have isn't a diagnostic tool by any means) and start poking around. My guess is that you will see a voltage difference between the ground post of the battery and some point on the engine/chassis, or the positive post and the power distribution/fuse block.

Note that where you are measuring from is critical. If you measure from the battery cable terminals to someplace else, and the problem is actually corrosion from the post to the cable terminal, you won't see it. Got it? So go right from the battery post to whatever destination after the terminal on the other end, such that you're actually seeing all the links in the chain at once, not just the links in the middle. Once you find a problem, such as reading a voltage difference between the battery post and something on the engine, etc., then you can narrow it down to a specific thing. I've seen broken battery cable terminals, terminal corrosion, corroded ground connections, corroded power connections, all can give the exact symptoms you describe, so the testing method is very important to make sure you are actually seeing what is going on.

That stock voltage gauge is probably a worthless pile of crap anyway, so I wouldn't necessarily trust it. Trust that you're having starting problems, not what the stock voltage gauge says.

 

the alternator an ac belt werent there apparently they broke while driving. thanks for the help guys.