Hello.

 

I have a Fabia that I recently repaired from a minor crash and the battery keeps dying. With the car in idle and no accessories on, I got a voltage of 12.8v across the battery, and with high beams and the blower on, I managed to get it down to 11.7v. At this point it seems to me that the alternator is not working but I wanted to get someone else's opinion. Another reason for my suspicions is that the alternator was slightly damaged in the crash and my father took it to a friend of his to be repaired, but this friend didn't seem like he's qualified for the job (read: It's a total botch).

 

With all this in mind, how likely is the alternator broken?

@Andrej1 - Does the battery light appear when you first switch on? If not, then I'm at least 99% that the issue is that one or both of the alternator control wires is broken or disconnected.

The light does not come on and the connector for those is what was actually broken in the crash. Considering that my dads friend already tried fixing it and failed, I'm now thinking about replacing the alternator.

@KenONeill is an absolute saint. I took off the alternator since I thought I was replacing it and checked the plug for the controll wires while I was at it. Both of the pins were bent to the side of the connector. I bent them back into place and now I'm getting 14.5v on the battery. Thank you again.

Nice cheap fix that.

Cheers; "Likes" for good technical advice are always appreciated too.