Hi,

I went for a drive today and the battery light came on a couple of times, only for a couple of seconds, but on none-the-less...

Took it to Halfords to get the battery tested and they said it was unserviceable, dead, 41%. Mind you they took 25 minutes to change a wiper blade on another car...

So, took it to another halfords, this time one I knew to be competent, they tested it and it said good, 68%. We replicated the first lots result though, using an incorrect parameter.

The alternator is putting out a constant 14v too, even with air con and lights on.

Anyone else had this and what was the cause?

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You could have loose terminals or a bad earth,

but most likely a battery on its way out and an alternator that is OK.

(Do you have a loose belt on the Alternator?)

It should be putting out enough power if you have everything switched on,

but you are using power from a battery possibly not fully charged.

It is trying to bring the battery to full charge.

(Do not switch on, whats required and let the battery get some charge from the alternator,

ie, lighten the load on the battery.)

Then the alternator will only need to work when required to keep the battery up to full charge.

Trickle charge the battery with a Battery charger that can charge it fully,

and go someplace that can Drop Test a battery properly.

No idea what their 41 & 68 % is all about. 'Halfrauds'..

george.

Hi,

I went for a drive today and the battery light came on a couple of times, only for a couple of seconds, but on none-the-less...

Took it to Halfords to get the battery tested and they said it was unserviceable, dead, 41%. Mind you they took 25 minutes to change a wiper blade on another car...

So, took it to another halfords, this time one I knew to be competent, they tested it and it said good, 68%. We replicated the first lots result though, using an incorrect parameter.

The alternator is putting out a constant 14v too, even with air con and lights on.

Anyone else had this and what was the cause?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

Hi Mavarick

I think the results tells the tale ! What do Halfords do ? yes they sell batteries don't they and all they want to do is sell you one even if your own is ok !

But getting to your fault a flickering light won't be a battery that is a t fault, it sounds more like a bad connection, I think there has been a number of

posts about it on here, I think you need to look at the back of the alternator or I beleive there is a connection on or near the gearbox(not sure) but do

a search and I am sure you will get the answer.

But any problem with a car, the last place to go is Halfords or or that other bunch (in Blue overalls ) cause all they want to do is sell !

Radiotwo

Hi Mavarick

I think the results tells the tale ! What do Halfords do ? yes they sell batteries don't they and all they want to do is sell you one even if your own is ok !

But getting to your fault a flickering light won't be a battery that is a t fault, it sounds more like a bad connection, I think there has been a number of

posts about it on here, I think you need to look at the back of the alternator or I beleive there is a connection on or near the gearbox(not sure) but do

a search and I am sure you will get the answer.

But any problem with a car, the last place to go is Halfords or or that other bunch (in Blue overalls ) cause all they want to do is sell !

Radiotwo

Hi Radiotwo,

The second halfords said it was OK. My girlfriend works at that one and I trust her judgement when she says it's OK

I'll have a look at connections etc next weekend.

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Can you just do a reading on the charge the battery has when sitting (and when starting.)

12.6 volts would be fine after the engine is switched off.

I take it that the leads on the terminals are tight.

(even Halfords will have spotted if not. or maybe not.)

Does the Alternator belt tension feel ok & is the belt in OK condition?

george

Think it was around 12.5 ish... I've had a dead battery in my old car and it showed 7v!

Alternator belt looked fine, that's at the front isn't it?

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Sounds like the wiring in the multi plug in front of the gearbox could be failing.

Very common on Diesel Fabia's/Polo's/Ibiza's. You need to get it jacked up and take the engine under tray off to get a good look at it. I had to fix mine a few months ago.

I had this a few months ago on my Fabia, Battery light came on intermittently .. eventually, it started coming on and beep once I got to a certain number of revs (so constantly being beeped at while accelerating and changing gears etc), and the revs for the warning to happen was getting gradually lower.

Initially it was only happening at 3500 rpm, after a couple of weeks it was around 2250rpm

In my case, it was the alternator at fault.

I had this a few months ago on my Fabia, Battery light came on intermittently .. eventually, it started coming on and beep once I got to a certain number of revs (so constantly being beeped at while accelerating and changing gears etc), and the revs for the warning to happen was getting gradually lower.

Initially it was only happening at 3500 rpm, after a couple of weeks it was around 2250rpm

In my case, it was the alternator at fault.

Hope it's not the alternator.. Cost much to replace?

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Hope it's not the alternator.. Cost much to replace?

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Cost me £120 for a refurbished Bosch unit, me and my brother fitted it ourselves, took us about half an hour - the most difficult part was unclipping the ground wire as the tab you have to pull to release was unhelpfully on the bottom.

I reckon if you can find a garage that are happy to fit a unit you've sourced yourself you should be able to get it changed for less than £200 all-in (just make sure they don't "throw away" the old alternator as you'll probably want to take that back to your part supplier to get the surcharge fee refunded).

First thing though to check if it is the alternator is get a cheap multimeter across the battery terminals - battery should be reading 12v when the engine isn't running, start the engine and put the probes on the terminals again and you should be reading 14v - if it's anything less than that then the alternator isn't functioning properly.

Also, grab yourself a cheap £8 elm327 bluetooth ODB2 scanner and use the free Torque app on your Nexus 7 (I'll try linking my nexus7 to mine shortly to confirm it works, but it definitely works with an odb2 app on my blackberry phone), then do a fault code read when the battery light comes on - it can't hurt to try.

Also, grab yourself a cheap £8 elm327 bluetooth ODB2 scanner and use the free Torque app on your Nexus 7 (I'll try linking my nexus7 to mine shortly to confirm it works, but it definitely works with an odb2 app on my blackberry phone), then do a fault code read when the battery light comes on - it can't hurt to try.

Unfortunately it only seemed to come on while moving, more while accelerating... Can't do that while moving, and you'd have to be quick as it didn't stay on long...

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if the wireing checks out OK but it's done a large milage it could just be the alternator brushes getting short(less spring pressure) and dirty in their holders and sticking a little this will show up worse as days go by---can be cleaned to get quite a few more miles ot of it

The voltage across the battry at rest, preferably overnight,

• less than 12.2 volts- battery is discharged
  
• 12.2 to 12.4 volts partially discharged
  

With engine at fast idle:

• 13 to 14 volts
  

This assumes that the terminals are tight and the alternator drive belt is in good condition.

SN