Having some battery problems

[Apex3]

I've been having some battery issues lately, my car will start up fine when it's cold, 14V while running, then as I drive it'll slowly drop, gets to where I have to rev it a bit to keep it going at lights, and turn off my accessories, if I drive for too long then park, I can't start it up again, but it seems to reset over night, it also starts with a jump. I've replaced the battery cables as well as the main ground, and the wire that goes from the fuse box to the battery, and this did mostly fix it for a while, but it still stayed at a lower than normal voltage while driving until reverting to the same issues, the cables were fairly corroded so it makes sense replacing them would have helped. Running accessories kills it faster, especially the defrosters and headlights.

At this point I'm thinking it's either the alternator or the battery, O'reilly's says my battery is good, but then again it's O'reilly's, the alternator's about 6 months old, but it's from Autozone, so who knows on that.

Any thoughts on this? Never had electrical issues with previous cars...I'm gonna take the alternator to get tested but I don't really trust them to give me a good answer unless it's completely dead.

[originalcyn]

Apex, i have an alternator from when i did my high output test if you want to use it. It should be fine.

[Apex3]

I actually went and got it checked and it turns out it was bad, only 6 months old so replaced under warranty. I appreciate the offer though!

[originalcyn]

No worries. I'm glad you found a relatively simple answer.

[Apex3]

I have the weirdest alternator problems, normal people just get a battery that stops charging and dies, but me? 3 different alternator problems that don't make any sense.

[originalcyn]

I feel like i use to go through alternators pretty quickly. I switched to the high output one about two years back and have been fond of it. But it does make a whining noise.

[Legacy777]

A lot of the alternators and parts you get at the parts stores are pieces of crap. They are "reman'd", and that term can mean anything from just changing seals to less or more. So it's a crap shoot. I hate doing the work twice, so I'd rather pay more for known good parts. IMO it's worth either getting one from a reputable alternator shop or a new one from Subaru.

[oldscoobyturbo]

I get my alternators from a good shop never had issues again
fwiw I did have 2 in the past with bad voltage regulators both ruined the battery too.

[mike-tracy]

I bought a reman unit from Subaru to fix a bunch of wierd problems that I was having. IIRC it was about $30 more than a parts store reman unit, so it was a no brainer to get the dealership one. Works great!