URGENT HELP - battery light
Discussion
Hi all,
Hope that there's enough of you who haven't gone to PF to help me out here.
Just went down to start the Chim (1998, 4.5), alarm off ok, doors opened ok, started fine, but the battery warning light is staying on.
Car sounds absolutely fine - perfectly normal. All belts turning in the engine.
If I press the throttle to about 4000 rpm the light goes out briefly and then comes back on as soon as the revs drop.
Last drove the car last Sunday - to Goodwood and back (from central London) - so battery should have had a good charge. Plus the battery was replaced 6-9 months ago.
Had a service recently with David Batty and he said all was fine.
Only other work done on the car was last weekend when I put the front of the car on ramps and reconnected the spade connector on the oil pressure sensor. This is also reading a little low today too. Did poke around the 100amp fuse next to the starter motor as maybe replacing that shortly - noticed the housing for the fuse was fairly knackered.
Any ideas chaps - got AA man on the way, but would be good if I could give him an idea of what might be the issue.
Girlfriends birthday this weekend - why does this have to do this now??!! FFS!!!!!!!!
Please help?????!!!
Cheers,
Ropey
Hope that there's enough of you who haven't gone to PF to help me out here.
Just went down to start the Chim (1998, 4.5), alarm off ok, doors opened ok, started fine, but the battery warning light is staying on.
Car sounds absolutely fine - perfectly normal. All belts turning in the engine.
If I press the throttle to about 4000 rpm the light goes out briefly and then comes back on as soon as the revs drop.
Last drove the car last Sunday - to Goodwood and back (from central London) - so battery should have had a good charge. Plus the battery was replaced 6-9 months ago.
Had a service recently with David Batty and he said all was fine.
Only other work done on the car was last weekend when I put the front of the car on ramps and reconnected the spade connector on the oil pressure sensor. This is also reading a little low today too. Did poke around the 100amp fuse next to the starter motor as maybe replacing that shortly - noticed the housing for the fuse was fairly knackered.
Any ideas chaps - got AA man on the way, but would be good if I could give him an idea of what might be the issue.
Girlfriends birthday this weekend - why does this have to do this now??!! FFS!!!!!!!!
Please help?????!!!
Cheers,
Ropey
The very nice man has just been!! It was the fuse next to the starter motor - it had melted. So he's bypassed the fuse - and the alternator is now charging fine.
Won't drive it til next weekend, when I shall be taking it over to brother-in-laws for replacing 100amp fuse, and exciter wire from imob to the starter motor. Then all should be dandy!!
Thanks for the advise chaps - and thanks to TVR Centre Barnet - who also gave me advise over the phone.
Cheers,
(One very relieved) Ropey
Won't drive it til next weekend, when I shall be taking it over to brother-in-laws for replacing 100amp fuse, and exciter wire from imob to the starter motor. Then all should be dandy!!
Thanks for the advise chaps - and thanks to TVR Centre Barnet - who also gave me advise over the phone.
Cheers,
(One very relieved) Ropey
ropey said:
It was the fuse next to the starter motor - it had melted. )
it'd melted & you've got it bypassed! A hell of a short is needed to melt a 100A fuse, for f**ksakes don't use the car utill: >You know why it melted & that's fixed
>you've put a new fuse in
The fuse link usually fails thru' vibration induced fatigue *not* melting for no reason.
Let us know what burning fibreglass smells like eh?
It's hard to see what the point of the fuse is since the only way you could blow it without setting the rest of the wiring loom on fire is to short the main power lead to earth. If that happened, isolating the alternator probably isn't going to save you since the battery would still be connected to the other end of the main power cable so you would presumably have a thousand amps or so going in from the other end - briefly? My guess is the fuse broke in half rather than blew, with just enough contact between the two halfs to keep you going until the heat buildup started melting things. It wouldn't take much current to do that - once you start passing current through a dry joint you can easily dissipate hundreds of watts of heat.
>> Edited by GreenV8S on Saturday 3rd July 21:55
>> Edited by GreenV8S on Saturday 3rd July 21:55
It may not have been melted as I actually didn't see it. I suspect he was exagerating - and meant blown instead. As mentioned in my previous post, the fuse and connector was fairly knackered anyway, as I spotted last week when it was up on ramps.
Just spoken to David Batty who said driving it as a one off will be fine - but obviously continuing to drive with the fuse by-passed is not a good idea, as the fuse is there for a reason.
As for why the AA did that - he knew I had one on order anyway, and he didn't have one to replace it (not unsurprisingly). I won't be using the car all week anyway, so will only have the hour journey over to my BIL when we will then replace the fuse.
Let you know how I get on.
Cheers,
Ropey
Just spoken to David Batty who said driving it as a one off will be fine - but obviously continuing to drive with the fuse by-passed is not a good idea, as the fuse is there for a reason.
As for why the AA did that - he knew I had one on order anyway, and he didn't have one to replace it (not unsurprisingly). I won't be using the car all week anyway, so will only have the hour journey over to my BIL when we will then replace the fuse.
Let you know how I get on.
Cheers,
Ropey
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