lost power steering will driving, car won't start now

[mattsmith]

Was driving my 2009 vibe (~120k miles or so) when the battery light came on. A tried to make it home and got pretty far but eventually lost my power steering. I replaced the fairly new battery with a brand new one and had the same problem the next day.

I've trickle charged the battery and want to experiment a bit while it has power and the car can start.

What are the basic troubleshooting steps from here?

[gtv237]

The power steering is electronic. It sounds like your alternator isn't charging. Hook a multimeter up to the battery and see what the voltage is while its running.

[mattsmith]

Just realized that might be helpful to know...

After trickle-charging it all night I read 12.2V when the car is off. When the car starts it's at 12.4V.

I guess that means the alternator isn't delivering power anymore. I've read about a large alternator fuse in the forums but my fuse compartment looks a lot different from those I see on this forum. Perhaps it isn't the fuse anyway but I'd sure like to check it. Anyone know where it is on my car? Also, this is a 2009, not a 2010 as I first though.

20150510_093454.jpg (153.31 KiB) Viewed 2210 times

[mattsmith]

I realize that the bus bar fuses vertically aligned are designed to be visible through the clear plastic top. I see six of them and all six appear to be just fine. Best guess now is a bad alternator.

[gtv237]

You can always put the positive lead from your micrometer directly to the alternator and see what the voltage is.