What happens when your alternator decides to give up the ghost?

This morning on the way into work I fueled up my 96 Subaru Outback and noticed, clearing some mist on the windows, that my windshield wipers were really slow. No matter what setting I put them on, they were slow (could be a real safety problem out here in the Northwest). So as I drove on I started thinking about how to schedule a trip to get the wipers checked before all of this lovely sunny weather turns to rain again.

About 30 minutes later, zooming down Highway 18, my speedometer and tachometer needles starting bouncing up and down, up and down, and then to zero. It was like a dying gasp. At this point, the ABS light clicked on. Followed by the Check Engine light.

Hmm, I thought, the car still seems to be running just fine… maybe I can keep going and when I turn it off it will be like a reset and all will be well (works for Windows…). Well, I thought the better of this and decided to pull over off of the Maple Valley exit and check the car out. The engine was running rough, and when I restarted it the engine was hesitant to start. Well, better get it to a dealer.

Luckily, I had two things in my favor: (1) Elisa working at home, who looked up nearby Subaru dealers, and (2) a McDonald’s manager that owned a Subaru and really recommended Auburn Subaru Volkswagen. So onto the cell phone I got and arranged a tow. Elisa picked me up and I checked in later to find it was the alternator that was bad (much better than the car’s computer).