So I've come across my first major issue/flaw with my car since owning it. For a while I noticed the volt reader would drop while at red lights when I have the headlights on, and as I hold the break it would continue to drain, once light hits green the volt read shoots up and everything is fine. I thought I narrowed it down to the original battery going bad so I replaced it with an Optima Yellow top which I figured would be far more then I needed since I don't have an aftermarket stereo or anything. I purchased the battery a few months ago and figured problem solved. Until recently I noticed the problem creeping back but figured it might just be from the car sitting around, but that was until last night. So over the weekend I drove out to the new place in PA about 100 miles out of NYC, on the way there we got stuck in really bad traffic and I notice the volt reader drop very low, so switch to neutral and rev it till things move. After about a 2 hour jam to the Holland, get out onto the highway and smooth sailing. I figured the car sat for a few days so figured that was the problem. Last night on the way home the road was clear all the way to the GWB, didn't see any serious voltage drop, then once hitting traffic again it starts to suffer pretty bad, had to drop to N again rev it to keep from shutting off. Luckily got home without any incidents, but once I got it to my parking lot I decided to really test out how low it would go, so I got all the lights, the AC, radio, hazards on see if it would hold, unfortunately the volts kept slightly dropping and lights started to dim, systems began to cut out like TCS and the dashboard. No check engine lights or anything came up, so I just cut all lights and AC revved the engine for a few and started to run normal again. I've come to the feeling the alternator is starting to fail, I asked them to check it last time I brought the car in in May and they said it all checks out, but honestly I want a second opinion and wondering if anyone knows a decent dealership on LI. I still got warranty on the car.
Thanks in advance.
Thanks in advance.