So today while driving home from the seaside after a day out crabbing with the kids my car decides to show the battery light.
It was only noticed after switching lights on and wipers on. I then turned off lights and wipers as it was still safe to do so.
While driving if I revved hard with clutch down battery light would turn of and then turn back on when resumed normal driving. This then changed to turning off when accelerating at speed but then turn on and off constantly. Then stayed on constantly with the occasional flicker of battery light turning off. So I can't tell what is going on here.
My initial thoughts are charge to battery. So getting home I decided to check with my multi meter. The battery was at 12.56v so I checked charge when engine running. It would jump to 14.2 volts for a second and then return to original reading.
So my thoughts are now dead/dying alternator. My only concern is the alternator is only 2 years old and done around 20k miles in this time. I believed that an alternator should last a minimum of double this. Am I correct in thinking this or just delusional.
Car is a Seat Alhambra 1.9 S TDI engine AUY year 2004.
So what I would like any advice on is:-
Am I looking at an new alternator
Could there be an underlying issue causing electrical error
Or are there any other reasons for batteries light to come on.
Any replies, answers or comments are greatly appreciated
Woody
It was only noticed after switching lights on and wipers on. I then turned off lights and wipers as it was still safe to do so.
While driving if I revved hard with clutch down battery light would turn of and then turn back on when resumed normal driving. This then changed to turning off when accelerating at speed but then turn on and off constantly. Then stayed on constantly with the occasional flicker of battery light turning off. So I can't tell what is going on here.
My initial thoughts are charge to battery. So getting home I decided to check with my multi meter. The battery was at 12.56v so I checked charge when engine running. It would jump to 14.2 volts for a second and then return to original reading.
So my thoughts are now dead/dying alternator. My only concern is the alternator is only 2 years old and done around 20k miles in this time. I believed that an alternator should last a minimum of double this. Am I correct in thinking this or just delusional.
Car is a Seat Alhambra 1.9 S TDI engine AUY year 2004.
So what I would like any advice on is:-
Am I looking at an new alternator
Could there be an underlying issue causing electrical error
Or are there any other reasons for batteries light to come on.
Any replies, answers or comments are greatly appreciated
Woody
