Battery light

The battery light on my car occasionally decides to light up then turn itself off when driving. This normally happens if i've been driving it hard. However, i noticed that at slow speeds it can come on, then goes off when I accelerate, specifically when the turbo kicks in.

The car is not losing any electical power and always eagerly starts in the morning.

Any suggestions welcome!

Jon, Check the connections on the alternator and also the tension of the drive belt, there is a tensioning screw on the mounting bracket.

Check voltage being output from alternator... should be about 14Volts.
If this figure is fine it is most likely to be a bad earth or contact somewhere check all earth points.

Hmm, disaster yesterday. The battery light now seems to be the least of my problems!

The teperature went up to 130, took me an hour to drive 3 miles getting home. I kept having to stop and let the thing cool down, hasn't lost any fluid so I suspect maybe the fan is not kicking in as it should. The joys of Alpine ownership...

[stephendell]

Bring it to the Ace if possible and let the guys diagnose your problems!

Mr J

Check your fuse .Mine have been melting themselves lately , the fans are on a lot They get mega hot and lose contact .

Cheers for the advice, i'll have a look.

Off to sunny Madiera in the morning so unfortunately can't make the Ace meet.

I presume the fuses live under the dash? (Yes, i'm crap at car maintenance!)

PS- Could well be the fuse as i put the heater on when it was over heating to expel any hot air into the cabin however it was blowing cool air out on the hot setting!

No ,that will be a blockage somewhere .The heater matrix is part of the cooling system on these cars ,so cold air on a hot setting is A BAD SIGN .

I think it was the fuse! The 25amp heater fuse had indeed melted, replaced it and taken it for a spin and all seems well, didn't register past 90 on the temp guage and it's scorchio out there.

Cold (ish) air now comes out of the heater on cold and blasting hot on the hot setting.

bigger!

The problem has returned only this time the fuse is still ok?!

The fan is blowing cool air in the hot position and the engine temperature just goes straight to the top even in cool weather at a constant 50mph.

Any ideas anyone?

Sounds like the radiator needs bled. You'll not see the fluid level dropping because it is being replaced by air in the system. Your heater matrix is probably full of air, as will the top half of your radiator be. This halves the cooling efficiency and also seems to stop the main fans from working after the level gets really low.

Get under the motor and you'll find the bleed valve on the end of a rubber tube that is connected to the top of the rad on the drivers side. Take the cap off the header tank in the engine bay and then open this bleed valve until water comes through - probably preceeded by a long whoosh of air. You'll then have to top up the system.

And in a lot of cases this rubber bleed pipe is full of sediment, so you may also need to wiggle a little something up it, like a piece of wire, to clear the blockage.

I'll get on the case! When I opened the expansion tank last week it was very pressurised, is that normal?

Thanks for all your advice chaps, what would we do without this site?!

[Alpineandy]

When I opened the expansion tank last week it was very pressurised, is that normal

Sounds like it's gassing up.... Head gasket