Desperate for advice. i have the battery light and others on the display in the following circumstances. it is a new battery which is fully charged , the alternator is working fine and the grounding has been checked. However i get the following faint lights showing. battery and seat belt on opening the doors, faint battery and temp gauge when put on abs button, battery and windscreen wipers when put on headlights. Nothing else shows any lights eg when i put on rear window heater , cd p[layer, flashing the headlight etc and i can have all these in operation without a problem. Driving me crazy - any advice will be gratefully received.

Welcome.

Is this since the battery was replaced, or was things the same before when you had a flat battery or whatever?

Is this a car new to you?

What Mk2 Fabia is it, As in Engine?

hi octohere. before and after new battery. Been going on for months. 1200 3 cylinder petrol.

 

sorry had car since new

 

Check the earthing strap between the engine/transmission and the body. If you have jump leads connect one between the battery earth terminal and a clean metal part on the engine. See if that makes a difference.

Thanks Jocko. That was one of the items i checked as it seems to be a reasonably common fault. When i changed the battery the terminals were clean and greased, and the grounding checked out. However the only other intermittent problem i have which seems a coomon issue with the fabia is the window control switch which needs drying out from time to time. I can see that affecting the issue with door and battery light coming on but not the headlight. I have checked the earth wire on the side light which is ok but getting to the headlight earth is a bit more difficult. I dont know if you can offer any advice but if it is a earth problem would driving the car with the headlights on be a problem, ie would it drain the battery.

44 minutes ago, tommie06 said:

That was one of the items i checked as it seems to be a reasonably common fault. When i changed the battery the terminals were clean and greased, and the grounding checked out.

There is usually a connection, sometimes low down on the engine/transmission, tied to the bodywork. In my time it was often braided. That is what the jump lead trick bypasses. The battery can be connected clean to the body but if the body is not connected properly to the engine you can have issues.

Hi Jacko, thanks for your help. Used heavy duty jump lead and unfortunately made no difference. took off the connecting leads and cleaned connections as well but didn,t help. Damn good idea of yours though as there was a little corrosion on the  connections.. think the problem must be with the instrument panel. The battery is showing 12.42 when engine off 14.43 when engine idling 14.24 with engine idling and headlights on and 14.37 with engine at 1200 revs. I assume therefore it should be safe to drive at night without draining battery. I would appreciate your opinion. As the car is 10 years old don't see the point of paying a great sum to have an electrical engineer try and diagnose the problem. I really appreciate your sound advice and if you have any other ideas please let me know. Cheers tommie

I wouldn't imagine there would be a problem driving with the headlights on. If there was, you would notice it first as sluggish starting, as the battery charge starts to drop.

hi Jocko. thanks for your help. i will continue to try and solve the problem and will post if succesful. merry christmas and to yourself north of the border have great new year.

cheers tommie