2000 Tracker, 1.6, stick

Sitting in the Walmart Lot,  The Tracker starts easily and runs fine for a while, then it starts to cut out like it is getting no fuel, quickly goes from bad to worse and then dies.  It the shows that it has no battery as it will not start up until it cools down for a while.  Then it will start up and run again for a bit.  The one thing I have notice is that the temp gage while showing cold will put out warm air from the heater.  When it decides to die the temp gage will show hot.  Are these guys famous for any associated electrical problems like this?  Any suggestions as to where to start?  My idea is to run it down the road anywhere from 20-40 minutes until it starts acting up, then feel around for hot wires and or a loose connection that gets it running better.  Currently stranded in a small town outside of San Antonio on the way to Mexico and the stealership of course can't duplicate the problem.

Let's start with the basics ...

What does "It the shows that it has no battery as it will not start up until it cools down for a while" mean?  Do you mean that nothing works until it cools down - to me - no battery means no lights, no horn, no radio, no crank - and no crank is different to no start.

If it goes completely dead - no lights no radio - start AT THE BATTERY - the problem will be either the battery itself, the battery leads (check the leads from the battery negative to the chassis and from the positive to the main fuse panel under the hood), and also the main fuse in that panel.

The main fuse panel is where the positive feed splits to go to ignition switched loads (the ones that work when the ignition is on) and non switch loads (the ones that work when the ignition is off), so if everything goes dead, the problem is either in that panel or between the panel and the battery.

Edit.

One last thing - I had a somewhat similar problem with my 98 2.0 Grand Vitara - whilst driving everything would die for a second or so and then come back to life - at first I though it was just the engine, but as day turned to night, and I switched the lights on, that was when I discovered that even the lights were dieing for that brief moment.

I checked the cables and the fuse panel - found nothing loose - and even the the battery showed no sign of dieing - it cranked the car EVERY time I tried - I put a new one in - and the problem went away.

Thanks for the reply,  Yes it goes completely dead, no instrument panel lights, no fan, no crank, etc.  In about 30 minutes the instrument panel lights came on dim and it did crank, start and run for about 5 minutes.  I feels like it is the ground that is like going to infinite resistance, but then the cable should be hot I think.  We are going to pick it up and will test it.  Texas has wide shoulders on the roads so we can drive it until it craters and then pull off and look at stuff.  I'm not used to battery cables going bad this soon, my 34 year old Porsche cables were very corroded, but then they were/are copper.

I'm betting on the battery.

Defective (high resistance) cables and connections will show up almost instantaneously under the high current load required to crank the engine - your problem sounds more like one of expansion and contraction.

It sounds like a defective battery, it could be also be a highly corroded ground as well. All battery connections and grounding/bonding strap connections should be clean enough to eat off of!

Thanks for all the input.  The connections are easy to check. The battery of course is always a mystery, but easy to change.  On the cables I was amazed on my old Porsche when I changed the cables how little corrosion appeared on the surface of the copper cables and how much there was when I cut the ends off and started spreading the wires, it probably shouldn't have been starting, but again those were 34 year old cables.  It will take me a couple of hours to get the car back and get everything checked out, I'll post back with the results.

Got a new battery, drove about 70 miles and everything was fine.  The old battery "tested" good, but there must have been something wrong with it.  Thanks a lot, this has been a new one for me.

PS:  My manual transmission shifting/syncromesh problems just disappeared when I put Redline 75-90( ? they have several) Transmission oil in it.