Mitsubishi Repair: 1996 Mirage eletrical problem, eletrical, volt meter

Question
I have a 1996 Mirage. 1.5l, 4 cyl. manual transmission. 125000 miles. This car  will not charge the battery while it is running. The battery is brand new. The alternator has been checked several times and checks good.  As I understand it the voltage regulator is attached to the alternator on this car, so if the alternator is good, the voltage regulator is, too. I cannot get the code reader to work. Even when the car starts the code reader will not turn on.

If I charge the battery really good, the car will start and run fine until the battery goes dead. Do you have any idea what could be wrong?

Answer
Kathy: Are the cables on the battery tooked up as they should be? The neg cable to the neg side of the battery and the pos cable to the pos side the battery? Is the alternator tooked up right, I mean the wiring, sometimes it is easy to get the wiring mixed up. Could be you have a bad cable on the battery or both are bad. You got an AutoZone close by? Take the car to them and they will code it for free. If not you should really get the car coded as the computer runs everything in that car and it should print out your problem. If not an AutoZone then see about a different meter, or take the car to a shop that can code your car then. Still check those cables, where they hook in the car, follow the cable all the way to its end from the battery. Replace the cables it is hard to see how good those cables are anyway, also make sure the battery is clean where the cables hook to it. Sounds like to me your code meter is needing to be replaced too. Still keep me posted on this. Another thing would be to get a volt meter to check if the alternator and battery are working together. Did you put in the alternator as to buy one and put it in? How do you know it is good just because you bought it new does not make it good. Sometimes you get a bad one. Need to check that too. God bless: Linda