Battery Problems

solitaire · Post by **solitaire** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 9:00 am

Hiya,

My Levin recently died after a big thunderstorm, got to the car the next day to discover the battery was flat.

I replaced the battery, and while the car starts fine now the "check battery"(?) light stays on while the car is running.

I gather from my searches on here that this is an overcharging issue with my altenator, id like to check what voltage is running over the battery while its running to confirm this, could someone please tell me what "normal" charging voltage is for a 4age?

ps. the check exhaust temp light also comes on... but i binned my cat years ago?

rwd_mayhem · Post by **rwd_mayhem** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 9:05 am

same thing happened to me, i had to replace the altenator.

NZ_AE86 · Post by **NZ_AE86** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 6:25 pm

Check with vehicle running and you should see 13-14.5volts depending on the condtion of the battery.

rollaholic · Post by **rollaholic** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 7:28 pm

getting any other dash lights? (check engine etc)

if so its because your alt is toast and not charging at all

solitaire · Post by **solitaire** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 8:03 pm

Initially there were no lights... its was completely dead... with a new battery it just had the battery light and the exhaust temp light.

diagnostic mode has no errors which i thought was a bit weird.

Getting alternator fixed tomorrow,

johndoe1025 · Post by **johndoe1025** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 9:19 pm

alternator light = not charging, open circuit or shrot circuit in the regulator most likely, or no output

cat light = low voltage giving false over temp reading, eg no output from alternator, enough to cause it to come up with a fault. thrunderstorm could of caused static electricity to fry something? would be very odd. see if your alternator stays warm, had one car, would charge but after sitting for ages the battery would go flat, i touched the alternator by accident, was warm when motor was stone cold... but yeah, bung alternator mate

matt dunn · Post by **matt dunn** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 10:23 pm

johndoe1025 wrote:
cat light = low voltage giving false over temp reading, eg no output from alternator, enough to cause it to come up with a fault.

No.

Quite a lot of the dash lights use the alternator as a bulb check function,
to make them come on to check the bulb before the car starts.

so a fault in the alt will bring on the cat light,
and in diesils, the sediment and possibly cambelt light too.

johndoe1025 · Post by **johndoe1025** » Wed Mar 04, 2009 2:23 pm

*shrugs* still gives you the same answer in the end. and i know of cars where fault lights come up due to low voltage+things not running right (eg GDI mitsis, run SUPER rich when not charging)