Car electrical gone crazy

[bitz767]

I had to have my 2010 3 Door manual towed into the shop last night because the car died while driving on the road.

Back in December I was having what I thought was battery issues. The car wouldn't start/no dash lights or anything at random times. I would leave town for the week, get to the car and it would start up fine, then I would try to leave an hour later and it was dead. After the first time this happened, I unplugged my subwoofer, heated seats, and phone charger from the car becuase I thought it might be some of my wires that were draining the battery. But after unplugging those things, it kept happening. So I went and got a diehard platinum battery and the problem seemed to be fixed until yesterday.

On my way to work, the electronics in the car just up and cut off for about 2 seconds, while the engine still ran. I thought it was strange and continued in to work. Then on my way home, same thing happened about 2 minutes into my commute. Lights went out, dash went dark, but the engine kept running. It went back to normal after a second or two, then kept cutting off more frequently (every 15 seconds or so) until the engine started to hesitate when the power went off and within a mile of the first cut off driving home, it cut the engine as well as the power. As my car is a manual, I had the clutch in, pulled to the side of the road and noticed that the starter was trying to get the car going. Once I let the clutch out, it stopped (Strange). So I pulled the key out and was going to try and start it up, but as soon as I put the clutch in, the starter would activate until I let go of the clutch (even without keys in the car). Turning the key would only get a few lights on the dash to come on, then off again after a while.

The car is at the dealer now. It is at 52k miles so no warranty (I assume). I have a 3rd party extended warranty that I hope will cover it.

I'm thinking its an alternator or a short somewhere in the system. Any thoughts?