Battery Light coming on

Peter256

My battery light on dash came on yesterday evening and this morning when after cold start. After a few minutes I restart and the light goes out and doesn't come back on. The battery is fine so I am guessing it's an alternator problem. When i started my car after work this evening no battery light came on. There seems to be a bit of a noise from the alternator area after starting also. No noises noticable while driving.

Atlantic Dawn

Has the car been getting much use with drives capable of recharging the power lost in starting the car? This weather doing 5km drives here and there is not even covering the power used to start the car and run the lights, heater etc.

Peter256

I only drive it to work during the week which is around 5km there and back. But the there is no problem with the battery starting the car and starts straight away.

BlakeS94

What test have you done to confirm the battery is good? Before you do anything to diagnose an electrical charging issue, you need to make sure battery posts and terminals are clean and there's a good connection, otherwise you're chasing a red herring. You need to remove the surface charge to get an accurate reading, either don't turn car on for 6hrs or more, or turn on headlights with car off for a few minutes then probe the terminals with a multimeter checking for voltage.

You can also check battery health by having someone turn the engine over while you have the multimeter probes on the battery terminals and if voltage drops below 10v you have a weak and/or old battery (which would also be weak).

If battery light goes off when driving that means alternator is working, it's bringing the battery voltage up while driving which turns off that battery indicator warning on your dash.

That sound you hear on startup probably isn't the alternator, it could be noise from the serpentine belt that runs along the alternator pulley, it could also be the belt tensioner or an idler pulley. They often chirp on startup but don't make much noise when they're wearing but not failed yet.

I think it is not happening later in the day because its not as cold as the morning. Lower temperatures force a battery to work harder to start a car, so if the battery is only so-so during warm weather it may start the car, but in colder temps the car won't start.

If any of this helps you out, it will make my day better. Hope you get the issue fixed.

In conclusion, test battery properly, I'd bet my money on you needing a new battery.

Speedline

Check the battery voltage with the engine running. A rough guide is 13.5v at idle, rising to 14.5 volts on a higher rev, say 2k revs or so. If the voltage is below those figures, it's most likely the alternator.

cml387

A big factor is the age of the battery, and the age of the belt. The fact of driving a lot of short journeys would tend to wear a battery faster. If it's five years or older it is probably time to change it.

Over 90% Irish cars have a battery related issues (at least what I seen). Too short driving distances, too many electrical accessories etc. Why people scare to use the battery chargers if car driving does not charge the battery enough? Soon as battery voltages drops constantly under 12.4V it goes bad by faster rate. This is really bad to see around 11.5V batteries. It can corrupt the memory, burn down the starter etc.

John.G

Compared to the days of the Generator, the alternator is truly fantastic, most will still charge the battery with dipped beam, HRS on and cabin fan speed on 2 while IDLING. I have never had to externally charge any of my wife's cars even though they only do a handful of kms/year (4 or 5k/annum).

How would you like to have an a charging system that gives the princely output of 160 watts at 2500 RPM or so.

Generator Charging.jpg

RPM like this family 1956 Beetle?.

Peter256

Just giving an update on my battery light issue. The light stopped coming on over the last few weeks. I had told a mechanic about it before Christmas and he said to contact him if the light came on again.

Well today I got caught and I had to get a recovery truck to take my car to my local garage from a good distance from where I live unfortunately. No dash warning lights this time but a noise while driving. I thought and was hoping it was a loose cover underneath the car scaping but as I drove it into a housing estate the noise became louder and sounded like it was coming from the engine. I stopped and lifted the bonnet to discover the alternator belt had started shredding.

I am hoping i didn't cause any serious damage. I read online that it could be a pulley issue or alternator bearing. Maybe the battery light coming on temporarily a few weeks back was the warning sign ?

Without seeing the damage and knowing the real problem, it is hard to blame anyone. Things happens sometimes. We even do not know what was done before.

Damo 2k9

Hi mate wondering if u got this sorted?

Alternator bearing is gone in my Focus at the moment aswell it seems.

mickdw

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118326910#Comment_118326910

That's a mad statement to make. Over 90 percent of Irish cars have battery problems.

Do you mean of the cars you see coming to garage with issues ..... That would make more sense but 90 percent of all cars on the road here have battery issues. I'm not buying that.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118551232#Comment_118551232

Read all the text! ...(at least what I seen). Obviously you missed that part! You do not believe me? Measure your fancy vehicle battery on next day morning and lets chat then...

Yes, that number is insane high but it is 100% true. I can not program any car where is battery voltages low. 12.0V is about 50% charge and it is not good at all! The vehicle battery should never drop under 12.4V on resting. Every battery what have after full day driving or +100km driving only 12.0-12.3V is obviously junk battery. Tested charging system and no fault there. So dream about what can be battery voltages on next morning...

Do you know what it can to do, if you crank by low voltage? Obviously you have no idea... It can corrupt the EEPROM and then you come to here to cry how bad is vehicle, battery, workers, etc... You can now laugh long as you want, but there is nothing funny.

mickdw

You said 90 percent on cars in Ireland have battery problems. It's a bullshit attention grabbing bit of text. If the cars you see are coming in with issues around electrics or whatever, well 90 percent of those are likely to have battery issues.

You are an arrogant clown given your text above. How do you know what I do or don't know about battery voltage.

I can confirm my car is 2008 Audi and has no battery issues and is on its second battery. Factory battery went to 7 years and the replacement is not having any issues.

I regularly use vcds when working on my car and yes battery voltage is critical in ensuring modules don't become corrupted etc. The factory procedure is to ensure battery is healthy and also use a battery charger while vcds is connected.

I can happily report no issues during various coding and maintenance procedures from winding in rear calipers for brake work which is fairly heavy on battery to doing general coding of features and fault finding.

I'd suggest you may want to re assess your procedures if you are finding that only 10 percent on cars incoming are electrically fit to work on. Considering you are advertising key coding etc, this would suggest perfectly healthy cars coming in, I find it staggering that you suggest that they are all defective.

Your rant is a disgrace.

I'd suggest you go away and look at your own procedures from when car enters your premises to ensure there are not being mistreated. Your percentage is just nuts so something wrong and it's not necessarily the cars.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118551813#Comment_118551813

Only clown here is you, who can not read full text and only push garbage! The number is real, I do not make it up. This is about last 2 years problem, before I did not seen so many weak/empty batteries. If you see every day full vehicle batteries, lucky you.

Order is made to use 100A hybrid power supply/battery charger type thing (voltage stabilizer) to ignore completely customer battery health/charge stage issues. Until there is good ventilation, no any risk. Vehicle alternators can charge even by higher amps. This is my solution but it does not solve the customers battery related issues. Problem remains, but I do not take any risk to drop out from programming or waste too much time for battery charging. It was not possible to buy before that stabilizer, because it is brand new product, lead time 25 weeks.

My suggestion is to check after several months the car battery SOC and charge by battery charger is necessary. Sure, many car owners is too proud to do that dirty job or they find 100 excuses not to do so. Battery sellers are happy about situation, every year (or so) new battery. The battery should last 4-7 years

mickdw

So now we are getting the covid angle. I'm sure there is some merit there but you implied that cars were in some way unfit for purpose and all were reporting with defective battery systems.

I live rurally so no issues with batteries as everything is 10 mins plus drive from home.

I work from home for the last 17 years and am getting 6 to 7 tears from battery but I do drive daily.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118552060#Comment_118552060

If everything is ok on your side, be happy. Obviously others not so happy and they have a low SOH and SOC batteries. They did not know there was problem before I checked it. 1 person was used the jump starter every morning - there is no battery problem... . Not funny to see DTC list where is almost 100 codes, many related by low voltages.

My message was warning for everyone to keep battery SOC high, avoid the electronics related troubles and increase the battery life time. But you turned it to big circus, like you are everyone... You did not read the first sentence fully and instantly turned it to nation wide disaster. Read it again!!! "Over 90% Irish cars have a battery related issues (at least what I seen)."

You do not offer any solution, only praise and admire yourself.

CoBo55

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118340812#Comment_118340812

If total load is 120w you're ok👍

CoBo55

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118551548#Comment_118551548

You need to educate yourself on modern energy saving charging systems and on AGM and EFB batterys. The days of the Esso lead acid battery being charged by a Lucas 17 ACR alternator are gone with the dinosaur.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118564397#Comment_118564397

You really believe that garbage what you said? Guess what, only small number of people have AGM battery. Even if there was the first original battery AGM, they never buy hundreds of euros worth battery. Another story is the battery registering on computer. So many boards members goes mad about battery registering story, no need to mention...

Sure you do not need battery charger if you drive enough. Unfortunately so many people never drive enough to keep battery SOC high.

Good to see how praise and admire yourself club is growing... "Uhh, I have biggest and baddest AGM, take the Lucas 17ACR alternator and feed it to dinosaur!" Really?

CoBo55

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118566502#Comment_118566502

You're an eejit...

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118566604#Comment_118566604

Thank you!