hi all 

i have noticed that the last few days of driving everything electrical was slow..eg wipers leccie windows etc but i convinced myself that i was imagining it.however i have been out tonight and the lights were like candle power the windows struggled to go down then the radio went off and one by one the dash warning lights came on BUT NO BATTERY LIGHT..i headed for home and as i tuned the last corner the engine started to die, turning the lights off the engine picked up again so i could get home albeit with the lights off.the starter spins the car fast enough to start as normal. im presuming turning the lights on is draining the battery but why no battery light surely if the battery is that flat that the engine wont run the light should be on.i bought the car a few monthes ago and have a garage bill that came with it for a new alternator and battery  a month before i got it and i have had no problem up to now.could it be something else???

It does sound like a battery problem, but just to rule it out, has the fuse box on top of the battery started to melt?

i have just been out and checked and no its not melting but there is a row of red wires and one black wire in the  fuse box on top of the battery and the black one is very loose as in i can move it from side to side freely could it be this???

When you say it is loose, is it loose on the nut and stud connection or just plain loose in the fuse box housing?. This is more than likely your problem, as the black sleeved wire is a supply from the alternator. Usually, unless you have been lucky, the fuse box melts underneath at that connection point.

loose on the stud and nut and the fuse box hasnt started to melt yest.

In which case clean up the terminal and tighten it up quick before it does start to melt the box. If it cures your problem, go out and buy a lottery ticket, as you are in the minority of people who've had this and not melted the fusebox so you are very lucky.

 

You may find that if the terminal was that loose, then the alternator could not get a charge through, and so the battery just flattened itself.

will do that first thing...still confused as to why no battery light tho .thanks for the info much appreciated.

The signal wire for the alternator that puts on the lamp and tells the alternator to charge connects to the loom near the starter connections.

 

You may have a second fault there, but to be honest, on the whole that is not a common problem as much as the fuse box and alternator cable  (the black one in the fuse box) terminal failing and getting a high resistance at the fuse box or alternator terminals.

 

I suppose I should say that it is not impossible that the alternator fitted recently may have experienced a problem, but a simple charge rate check with a multimeter should confirm or rule that out.

i have today been out to inspect and repair the alternator cable and fuse box as stated in the above posts.this is the first chance i have had to inspect the components in the daylight and despite stating that my fusebox hadnt started to melt i was wrong, oh boy was i wrong.

some kind person has in the past tried to rectify the melting fuse box problem, and  this is what i found....the threaded post that the black alternator cable attaches to has for some reason been removed and replaced with a bolt that has been pushed through from underneath the box and  the plastic that  had seriously melted  under and around the fuse had been substituted with a very thick layer of black silicone, in effect the fuse had been seated in the silicone to insulate it and stop it moving around,both of which it had failed to do, the bolt was extremely rusty as was the nut and they had also had a go at replacing the ring terminal on the end of the lead, with the result being very shoddy indeed with bad corrosion and oxidization all over the ring and cable plus the sheath that surrounds the entire length of the lead had been removed and replaced with pvc electrical tape along its entire length.so obviously the car has suffered from this problem before and its been bodged up.still a new fuse box and cable have returned the car to the road again.also as a result the 3 month old battery had failed to the point that it would not take any charge from my charger at all, maybe this bodge caused the battery's demise?

More than likely, sorry to hear that, but unfortunately you are not alone. I check the tightness of all the fuse nuts at every service now as a matter of course.

 

Sometimes, if you connect a second battery with jump leads to the other while charging, the second battery will give the charger a "leg up" to get the charge process going. once it starts to accept the charge, disconnect the second battery. Do not have the second battery connected to another vehicle in any way to do this, ideally disconnect both from the vehicles.