Long time no post so here goes!

Yesterday the battery light on my R reg 1.3 Felicia estate came on while I was driving to work and never really went out for most of my journey, it just changed from bright to dim, depending on revs. On the way back I was almost home before the same thing happened again.

This morning it was the turn of the airbag warning light to come on and at the same time the engine was really sluggish (fuel pump perhaps?). Also the demist fan wasn't as effective as usual. However, noticing the screen was a bit grubby driving into a low sun, I used the wash wipe switch and the airbag light went out; the demist fan kicked in full bung and the car went back to being as smooth as usual. :S Tonight on the way home I had the airbag light stay on again, remembered the wash wipe trick and that worked again!

Needless to say I am confused and was intending to spend tomorrow looking for some kind of wiring short. However, seeing some earlier posts about the alternator voltage regulator; could this be my problem? The alternator was replaced about 18 months ago but I'm not sure about the VR.

All suggestions welcome and its good to be back!

Regards

Catman

Hi,

It really does sound like something battery or alternator related.

Grab a voltmeter and measure the potential across the battery terminals with the ignition off. It should read around the 12v mark but i'm thinking you'll prob find it's gone below 11.7volts.

Turn the ignition on and measure the voltage across the terminals now, should be in the 14v region. You noted that the warning lights were changing brightness with the revs, that suggests the alternator is working.

It's not guaranteed to be a faulty battery, it could be something heavy draining the battery -- i dont know how power steering is setup on the felicia but electro-mechanical setups can draw big currents under certain circumstances when they're not working properly.

Hope this helps, post back with your findings on voltages.

Edited 4 March, 201016 yr by Mute

Almost certainly Alternator voltage regulator. The changing brightness with revs shows the voltage is changing with revs. It's not unusual for this to become a relatively high voltage, frying important bits of the car (you may smell the battery "boiling" first though).

yes chack the voltage across the battery with the engine running both at idle and 3000 rpm or so if it goes any higher than 14.5 volts then you need to replace the regulator BEFORE you end up needing a new ecu and airbag unit