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Bad battery? Mystery dash lights on?

M

mattsBLK99cSVT

Hard-core CEG'er
Joined
Oct 12, 2006
Messages
1,030
Location
Bartlett, IL
On saturday when I was driving home from work the battery light, abs light, and brake light all came on. When I would sit at red lights the dash lights would get really dim. Only the battery light stays on constantly and the abs and brake lights only come on when you get above 2000rpms. Car drives fine so I'm confused as to whats going on. Also I drove the car yesterday and one of the covers on the battery popped off and shot battery acid all over my engine so I have no clue why the battery blew up, because I checked it a few weeks ago to make sure it had enough distilled water and what not. :shrug: Any ideas of whats up?

Thanks,
Matt
 
bad news i got a new battery and it blew up as well, battery, abs, and brake light are still on i have no idea what to do, is my alternator overcharging the battery? right now i want to douse my car with gas and light a match


edit, i also noticed today that the power wire coming from the positive terminal is pretty frayed and actually melted itself a notch into the battery tray
 
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get a voltmeter and check the voltage. that was one of the signs when one of my alternators when out. it charged the battery at 19v and it blew up.

test that then get back to us
 
kscontourkid said:
get a voltmeter and check the voltage. that was one of the signs when one of my alternators when out. it charged the battery at 19v and it blew up.

test that then get back to us
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that sounds on the money dude i will def. get right on that tomorrow morning, another side note, right after i installed the new battery and started driving i heard two electrical pops come through the speakers even though the radio wasn't on :crazy:
 
AliasJerk said:
your battery is bad.

get a new one.

My work here is done *flys away*
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You're fired... stop trying to solve problems in one sentence on the first post. It very rarely works and more often than not makes you look like an idiot, as well as costs the OP money (which it did in this case!)

Some logical troubleshooting would have gone a mile on this one. A thought out process (which is outlined MANY TIMES in the past) would eliminate the problem without the possibility of being costly and wrong.

Test the battery after it is FULLY CHARGED. (trickle charge it or substitute a KNOWN good/charged battery)

12.0 VDC or more off (if not, bad battery)
13.2-14.9vdc running (if not, bad alternator or wiring to battery)

Turn on the headlights

measure again. Should still be the same (13.2-14.9) (if not, bad alternator or wiring from alt. to battery)

turn off the car, leave headlights on for 60 seconds and then measure battery

should be 12.0 or higher (if not, bad battery)




See how much straight forward and thorough that is?

My work is not done here.. OP: repair the wiring melt spot, inspect your other wiring mounting locations, then please get back to us after you test as stated above and confirm status with us so we can go from here.
 
I probably should have added this as well but I forgot. I have a nice little power steering leak coming from the passenger side above the subframe. Is it possible some fluid dripped on the alternator and this is the cause of it? The leak is below the alternator so I would think it would have a hard time making up to the alternator. The power steering lines down there look totally corroded and worse than a rusty titanic at the bottom of the atlantic. sidenote, my dad will be coming over here later with his voltmeter so I hope to have an update later in the day.
 
If your wire from the Pos terminal is bad (frayed/corroded/melted) it could have shorted to the frame of the car and fried your battery and alternator. Pick up a universal cable at Walmart of such. Just make sure it's the right length and has the right terminals on each end.
 
Ok problem has been diagonosed I beleive, here's whats up. Either the return or pressure line for the power steering pump down by the subframe has a crack in it. My guess, power steering fluid shot all over the alternator and now it is over charging the battery. So it looks as if I have two PITA'S that I have no idea how to do, looks like my car is broken for who knows how long. :shrug:
 
Ray said:
You're fired... stop trying to solve problems in one sentence on the first post. It very rarely works and more often than not makes you look like an idiot, as well as costs the OP money (which it did in this case!)
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meh, its happened before, people are wrong occasionally. Fairly hard to know whats wrong with a car based on a text based description.

my 2nd guess would have been a charging issue, its just more rare for an alternator to over charge on these cars, rather to have an alternator fail or a battery fail. If this guy's alternator is charging at 18 volts, its obvious something is wrong, which could do with the mega fuse, or probably the voltage regulator inside of the alternator, one solution has to do with replacing the mega fuse, one has to do with replacing the alternator, either way its kinda a PITA to do.

Just going on previous experience and knowledge, I may still be entirely wrong, I admit that.
 
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and you are.

If the alternator is overcharging it is NOT the megafuse. The megafuse being blown would cause NO charging whatsoever. That, and he would have a charge indicator light on the dash at all times because of a lack of current. (the megafuse is the only current path between the alternator and the battery)


Fairly hard to know whats wrong with a car based on a text based description.
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I agree.. this is why I said what I said, earlier. If it is so hard to diagnose, then why did you jump in here and say something to the effect of "poof, here's your problem, this is definitely it... " after one small question. Problems ARE hard to diagnose, I agree, but your first reply to this thread was the exact opposite of what you say now. You tried to diagnose it in one sentence as if it were fact.

Either way, I'm glad to see that the OP has found the problem. An overcharging alternator is either the regulating diode in the VR (which is ON the alternator anyway) or the VR connection to the alt is bad, etc. All of which require removing the alternator and replacing either the VR, or the alt/VR combo (which is what I would go with...)
 
get the power steering fixed as well or the problem will continue. by my experience that is probably the cause for the failure. my car went through 4 alternators in 2 years before finally getting a tech to tell me that there was "oil" all over the thing and later found out it was ATF (power steering fluid in these cars) which can cause all sorts of electrical problems.

good luck
 
kscontourkid said:
get the power steering fixed as well or the problem will continue. by my experience that is probably the cause for the failure. my car went through 4 alternators in 2 years before finally getting a tech to tell me that there was "oil" all over the thing and later found out it was ATF (power steering fluid in these cars) which can cause all sorts of electrical problems.

good luck
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Yea I'm going to replace a section of the powersteering lines first. Then I'll worry about the alternator next. I know its a 50/50 shot on alternators, but what would you guys recommend?
 
update guys. i got my alternator put in yesterday and fixed my leak, and everything is well, alternator is charging battery at 14.6 volts and there are no lights on the dash at all :cool: i am quite happy right now :laugh:, now the only things left to fix are the parking cables and the brm
 
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