Battery dash light

[RichQuy]

Afternoon guys

Drove car last night for first time in a couple of days, all fine. Went to drive again this morning and half way through the journey the battery light on the dash illuminated.

I know normally this means it could be a prob with the alternator belt or alternator itself, or just that the battery isn't keeping it's charge. I have an Accumate and when checked it says the battery is fully charged, I have checked the belt and all seems fine.

Now, the light has come on before and then disappeared before I had a chance to look into it further - any ideas what it could be this time around, or is it just 'one of those things' ?

Thanks
Rich

[Scuffers]

if the batt light is on, the alt is in trouble...

if it's turning, then it's likley it's fubar

[RichQuy]

Bugger. Cheers Simon.

Do you know whether it is an expensive / tricky job? Presume floor off for access, etc.?

[whygee02]

My battery indicator started to come on a while ago, turned out it was indeed the alternator had popped. Cost was IIRC £400 quid or so all in, from our Lotus dealer, but my independent warranty stumped up for it, no hassle.

Edited by whygee02 on Thursday 17th January 17:02

[RichQuy]

whygee02 said:

My battery indicator started to come on a while ago, turned out it was indeed the alternator had popped. Cost was IIRC £400 quid or so all in, from our Lotus dealer, but my independent warranty stumped up for it, no hassle.

Edited by whygee02 on Thursday 17th January 17:02

Thanks Sean, more expensive than I thought actually but gives me an idea. Cheers

[whygee02]

No probs, sounds like you know a bit about what you're doing so you could maybe save a few quid fitting it yourself. I think the alternator itself was about £250.

PS formula 1 (our lotus dealer) identified it was a faulty alternator by using a basic sparky's multimeter to measure the current being output from the broken alternator when it was still in situ, if this helps. You might need to read up on values it should be outputting though.

(I'm no mechanic as you can probably tell)

HTH

Edited by whygee02 on Thursday 17th January 19:13

[Mr_B]

My S1 had the alt light flickering on sometimes, usually at high revs, and then its stayed on. Used a cheap multimeter to see if it was charging the battery and it wasn't. You should be getting something like 13.4v or a little bit higher if its charging.If it reads 11-12v then I'd say its not getting a charge. You could check the wires on the alt to make sure they are not lose or burnt. Bought a new alt of eBay for £70 and fitted myself.

[Gad-Westy]

Before you commit to a new alternator. Check that its not just your connector coming adrift.