alternator?... Battery?... Bad Earth?... its driving me nuts!!!

Hi all

its been a while. i been having problems with battery power and just wondering if anyone can help.

started my 90 an noticed it was a tad bit of a strugle for her. thinking nothing of it i decided to just go about mu business (silly me) on my traveld i noticed my radio turning its self off and on. at the end of my travels i turn the engine off to return an hour later to a flat battery. a nice gent give me a jump start and i was on my way. the radio was still turning its self on and off so i decided turn it off for 10 minutes. after 10 minutes of no radio i put it back on and it was fine for about 10 minutes and then it was back to turning its self off and on again. i got home, turn the engine off and tryed starting it up again, but alls i got was the starter motor clicking. the battery was dead again.

wake up the next day to a fully charged battery (via battery charger that is) everything was fine for 2 days and then the 90 wouldnt start again.

NOW!... when i turn the key one click in the ignition the battery light is on. i start the engine an the battery light goes off. 24 hours later i try doing the same. turn the key one click, battery light is on. start the engine the battery light stays on this time round. i give it some revs and the light goes on. few hours later the battery is dead again.




my battery seems to be getting drained fast over the course of 2 days and then i have to recharge it again. thing is when i put the battery on the charger, 5 minutes later its telling me the battery is fully charged.

Thanks in advance all

Ben

Sounds like alternator to me. And your battery is now useless.

storm99 said:

Sounds like alternator to me. And your battery is now useless.

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dam! how useless is useless..... time to buy a new battery useless? can it not just be recharged?

get the battery tested, if it is knackered there is no saving it.

And test the alternator too, no good throwing a £100 battery on only to have that goosed within a week too. You can only recharge a battery a few times, it will gradually hold less and less charge, its probably been running all the electrics on your car and thats why it only holds a charge for 2 days. With winter coming up you need a good alternator and a great battery.

You can start by doing a couple of voltage readings. One whilst the engine is running, and one while it's not. I'd expect it to be 12 to 12.5 ish when it's not running, and about (or close to) 14 when it's running.

you can see if you've got a battery drain when you're not running the engine, by hooking up a multimeter to the battery, on the ammeter setting (might need to swap lead from one socket to the other - read the instructions - my multimeter doesn't even do this..). You need to disconnect earth lead, and hook positive side up of multimeter to the earth terminal, and the other side to the earth lead.. It should read 0, unless you have anything like an immobiliser, or something else that consumes power normally when the ignition is off. If there's something draining the battery, then start pulling fuses one by one until you figure out what it is

multimeter is the tool to buy today then cheers for the advice guys. ill let you know how i get on

Ben

Hi all. Back again.

Forgot to say. Last night I was out driving last night. The alternator was only charging when the car was idle.
Soon as I start driving the battery starts to drain :-s


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fan-belt slipping? rev it up whilst stationary and keep checking the volts with your nice new multimeter see what the belt does!