Battery light (advice / help needed)

[rob - 73]

What a nightmare of a week, rear driver window smashed on Saturday. Got a new window fitted at Autoglass on Sunday... £75 lighter..

Now on the way home tonight my battery light flashed on for a second or two when accelerating, then was fine.

Did a bit of searching on here to see what the cause could be?

Think it might be the alternator??

So went for a quick drive round the block, it was ok until I accelerated hard in 3rd then the battery light came on a stayed on for a couple if seconds, then light went off again?

I tried switching the lights on then switching every electrical thing on in the car to see if the lights dimmed and stayed dim. Well they dimmed but only for a second then back to bright again.

What are your thoughts?

I'm I okay to drive the car for the rest if the week, can't afford another repair until payday

Help...

 

[rob - 73]

Help... Anyone??

Starting to wonder if I should even drive the car to work tomorrow 30mins drive??

 

[youngyWHU]

Could be alternator itself, could just be belt contact. Have a check of the battery connectors too.

 

[rob - 73]

Daft question but when you say belt contact what exactly should I be checking?

Sorry..

If it only happens during hard acceleration is the battery still getting charged under normal running?

Just trying to figure out if I can wait a week until I get the alternator checked??


Cheers

 

[towcester vag]

get alternator checked!
could be alt freewheel pulley starting to seize but this would do this on decelleration and you will get squeaking on idle and when you turn the wheel statioary

 

[rob - 73]

I know ideally I should get this done ASAP but if I avoid hard acceleration could it be okay for a week?

Thanks

 

[rob - 73]

Any more thoughts on this?

 

[LEE69]

Might went like this took a fair while to actually go but was the alternator goosed.
When it does go you'll loose the FBW throttle first.

 

[rob - 73]

Thanks Lee,

I was reading one of your old posts about this last night... I was hoping you would see this.. lol

So do you think as it is happening only during hard acceleration I should be okay until next week to get it checked out?

cheers

 

[LEE69]

Mine lasted a fair while tbh and the light only came on under hard acceleration, pootling around never lit the light.

 

[rob - 73]

Yeah same with mine, hopefully will last until next week.

Didn't even come in this morning on my way to work on the motorway... Didn't do any full throttle driving though, still motorway speed though.

Fingers crossed

 

[LEE69]

It might even be the clutch slipping, that's bolted to the end of the alternator, but not sure how thy are tested.

 

[rob - 73]

Mmmm interesting, will get it looked at next week.. Fingers crossed it lasts.

Will keep you posted.

Thanks again

 

[rob - 73]

Quick update, on the drive home tonight no issues.

Even during hard acceleration there was no battery warning light.

So here's hoping it was a one off.??

Noticed on starting up that the passenger headlight went off for a second when starting off. Was okay for the rest of the drive home..

I'm going to get the alternator checked next week when I get paid.

 

[akchappers]

If you're headlights are on on startup they should dim not go out fully. Get it checked asap
Ak

 

[rob - 73]

Thought that might have been a loose connection in the headlight.??

 

[akchappers]

Yea but not alternator or battery related bud.
Ak

 

[rob - 73]

Yeah I know, don't know what made the battery light come on the other day as it has been fine now (fingers crossed) for the last two days.

Getting the alternator checked next week just to be safe.

 

[MAC MAC]

Here is what you do, simple car alternator test ;
Make sure all the accessories on your car are turned off (lights, radio etc.) and then rev up the cars engine to a fast idle (say 2000-2500 rpm).

Set the volt meter or multimeter to the DC scale and measure the voltage across the battery terminals - red lead of the voltmeter on the positive terminal, black on the negative. You will need someone to rev the engine whilst you connect the meter to the battery.
With the engine at a fast idle, the voltage on the meter should read around 14 volts (13.5 to 14.4). The alternator needs to generate a larger voltage than the battery's rated voltage to overcome the internal resistance of the battery.

The current needed to recharge the battery would not flow at all if the car alternator output voltage was the same. The larger the difference between the alternator output and the battery voltage, then the quicker the battery will charge.

So as you can imagine, if your car is quite old and the alternator and the battery are too, problems can occur with the battery getting enough charge and making the car more difficult to start and less reliable.

If the reading on the multimeter is less than 12 volts then you may have a failed alternator.

*

Price up an alternator for your motor

 

[rob - 73]

An update on this issue..

No more battery light flashes, although on Sunday while doing some other work on the car I noticed there was a kind of rattling noise from around the aux belt/pulley area (hard to tell what).

Got the car to the VW/audi/seat independent garage today. They checked the following:-

• checked alternator belt / tensioner & free wheel pulley. All ok
• checked battery voltage at idle 14.3V at 3000rpm. All ok
• checked all pulleys & power steering pump. All ok

So okay all seam fine, which is good but now I am wondering what else would be causing the noise from around this area at idle (lower left hand side of engine)..??

Any ideas what this rattling noise could be???