Battery Light

Monkey-Gein · Sat Sep 19, 2009 2:54 pm

so, i was driving along and my battery light turned on. was on for a min and turned off for a min. that happened twice last night then it staid on for the last 2.5 hours i was driving. curious to see what y'all think? there was no light dimming. no belt squeals. and the light is now solid, doesn't go away when the alt is making more juice. baically nothing has changed, just the light on.

07 2.0 with 48,000

Sat Sep 19, 2009 3:04 pm

Did you test the charging system?

Monkey-Gein · Sun Sep 20, 2009 11:40 pm

test it? how do you do that with a flat head screwdriver? (no, i lost my phillips if you were going to ask)

i drove 2 days with it on with no change in anything. will, my scanner pick it up?

Mon Sep 21, 2009 5:23 am

A multimeter works well and they're dirt cheap, Your scanner might show charging system output but I'm not sure.

Or drive it to Autozone or somewhere else that does free charging system tests.

hermitmaster · Mon Sep 21, 2009 6:15 am

I had the same symptoms when my alternator pigtail went bad. Check it out.

Mon Sep 21, 2009 6:22 am

He's got a Duratec and so far those don't seem to have the same issue with the wiring pigtail.

hafftrak · Mon Sep 21, 2009 7:46 am

I've got the same problem with my car, can the pigtail be replaced or can I repair it?

Monkey-Gein · Mon Sep 21, 2009 12:30 pm

i don't know how to use a multimeter. i know i sound dumb. but i usually just use it like a test light. if there's something i don't get i stick out my lips and bang on it with the nerest tool....
i have an SCt X3. would that do it? i think it might ifd i log it. does o'reily's do the test

hafftrak wrote:I've got the same problem with my car, can the pigtail be replaced or can I repair it?

you can just replace it. pigtails are cheap and i'm starting to see the first gens in junk yards. check CL for a part out. $5 tops, that's what i was charging.

focinite · Tue Sep 22, 2009 7:59 pm

take the DVOM and set it to volts, then start the car and put the black lead on the neg(-) and the red one on the positive(+) and if the alt is charging normal it shoud be 13-14 volts any thing below that or above that will trip the light. another thing to check is ,do you have a scince experiment on the post of the batt? are the ends lose, do you have a bad cell. check the grounds as the focus(pick a year) have a horrible grounding setup.

Monkey-Gein · Sat Oct 10, 2009 3:04 pm

ok, so i did check it. it was floating between 14.2 and 14.6. so what does that mean?

a few other things happened too. for a bit last night when id hit the brakes some idiot lights came on and my cd would fade out. when i'd take off it went back to normal. i met my dad later, turned off my car then immediately tried to start it, didn't start. we jumped it and it started. on the way home i grabbed a batt. when i got home i did the same thing and it was fine. i swapped batts and the light is still on.

what's going on.....

Sat Oct 10, 2009 5:06 pm

Your alternator is dying...

I've been through the same thing.

It is most likely still working while you are under some throttle (2,500+ RPMs) and that's why your battery hasn't died.... yet. But at idle and low RPM's it most likely isn't charging.

Time for a new alternator.

Monkey-Gein · Sat Oct 10, 2009 5:31 pm

that 14.6 happened at idle. you saying it'll overcharge while it's dying?

iminhell · Mon Oct 12, 2009 12:37 am

Sounds like a ground fault somewhere to me.

Add any new electronic devices lately? Check them first.
Hell, maybe it's just a loose cable.

hafftrak · Mon Oct 12, 2009 10:21 am

Monkey-Gein wrote:that 14.6 happened at idle. you saying it'll overcharge while it's dying?

If the voltage regulator is going bad it will. Our alternators are internally regulated, so you'll need to replace the whole thing if it is bad.

KRYPTO · Tue Oct 13, 2009 8:40 pm

Mine did that after I put the battery in the hatch.

Found out it was a bad ground, fixed no problem yet. (even with large stereo)