No Starter motor - flickering battery light

[debaron]

Was stranded in Asda car park earlier :-( Had to bump start to get home.

Battery light came flickering on whilst driving to said supermarket and now nothing when I turn the key.

Battery light issues indicate alternator troubles right? But battery (seems) to have plenty of juice - Windows, lights stereo all fine.

Will check voltage across battery tomorrow and provided I can get it started i'll check voltage across the battery when running.

Any ideas?


many thanks

Ryan

[Zad]

Alternator belt loose? Old battery that is about to fail?

[debaron]

UPDATE:

so this morning it started ok - went around to kwik-fit (only place open) and to be fair they did a quick test on battery voltage. 11.2 volts not running and 13 or so running under load.
They said it needed an auto electrician so that was all they could do.

Came to leave and it wouldn't start. Nothing from starter - not even a click.

They put a battery pack over the battery terminals and it fired!


Windows are now very very slow so i'm guessing that the battery is very discharged. Why that is i'm not sure seeing as there is 13 ish going into it from the alternator....maybe the flickering battery light means the charge isn't constant.

Check serp belt - tight.


Any suggestions?

Cheers

Ryan

[bsdnazz]

debaron said:

11.2 volts not running and 13 or so running under load.

and

debaron said:

Windows are now very very slow so i'm guessing that the battery is very discharged. Why that is i'm not sure seeing as there is 13 ish going into it from the alternator....maybe the flickering battery light means the charge isn't constant.

Any suggestions?

Since the battery won't start the car but a booster will there's unlikely to be anything wrong with the starter.

So either the battery is not holding any charge or the alternator is not charging the battery.

I'd expect to see close to or a little over 14v from an alternator when running so you might have a problem with the alternator.

I'd start by putting the battery on a mains charger and charging it up. If the car starts OK then the battery is probably OK and the alternator is not doing it's job. That said, how old is the battery?

[debaron]

bsdnazz said:

So either the battery is not holding any charge or the alternator is not charging the battery.

SOLVED:

The alternator was indeed not charging the battery. One of the first things I checked on friday was 100A fuse (125A in my case) and passed the test with a multimeter.

Took it to a mates garage today and the fuse failed test! Turned out the fuse was intermittent!!!!!! (snapped inside I reckon)


It's one of these



Replaced with a new one and no more problems.

Thanks to all who replied.

Ryan