Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Battery Light - can't figure this one out

Decided to make a new post since my original post here had about 20 other things intertwined in the discussion that are all pretty much taken care of now... but I am still getting a battery light.

Sometimes it will stay off for a whole car ride. Sometimes it will come on right away and stay on for a whole car ride. Sometimes it will come on in the middle of a ride and stay on for 10 minutes and then shut off. Seems to be coming on independent of load/RPMs/etc.

When I first had this checked at the dealership, the altrenator tested fine, the battery itself was just a little on the weak side.

Got a new battery and I still got the light.

I went to turn in my old battery at Autozone and they tested it there and it read as "good battery". They then wheeled out the cart and tested my battery and altrenator again... and again, it came back fine.

The connections seem to be fine. The cables, at a glance, seem to be fine.

I guess I should note that it does have an aftermarket stereo, and also, whoever had it before me had disconnected the alarm (I think the alarm was stock.) Not sure if either of those things make a difference in how I should approach diagnosis.

Oh, and I would also like to note that everything seems to be working fine (no dimming lights, etc) except that sometimes I will get static on my radio when I push the rear window defrost. But I thought that may have more to do with the aftermarkete radio than the battery. I could be wrong.

Thanks!

You keep saying that you "had it tested"..

Can you give us any figures on what was found?

Voltage across the batter terminals while running? While the charge light is on, and running?

You need to confirm that it is, or isn't, charging firstly. Believing those goons at parts stores is probably the second mistake you made. (the first being that you thought that they would know the answer)

Once you measure the voltage, and have specific numbers at hand, you can see where the fault is. either the reference wire for the light, or the charging system itself, etc.

Post what numbers you get when measuring as stated above, and I will be sure to keep an eye on this thread!

Hey Ray,

When the old battery was in and it was checked at the dealership it was at 11.8 and 14.5. It was checked the next day at the shop I went to get the brakes checked at and it was roughly the same.

Yesterday I got the new battery. It was checked today at Autozone it was 12.5 and and 14.7.

I was just saying they were "good" because all of the tests were within a range of approx what they should be. Sorry I left that out.

I can't remember if the battery light was on during any of these tests, it comes on so sporadically I don't know how I would be able to test it specifically when the light comes on.

If the brushes are floating, then it would work FINE when it isn't illuminated (hence... good readouts)


you'd just have to wait until it comes on, pull over and test... or.. install a voltmeter guage in your car.. lol Then you are ALWAYS sure what your car is doing.

Great idea, maybe just temporarily rig a volt meter to the lighter socket or other convenient place so you don't have to stop to measure underhood. You need a voltmeter/ohmmeter when you own a Ford

I can tell you that I had an intermittent Battery light just over a year (right after the warranty ran out) after replacing my alternator. I ignored it for a while, but eventually it died on the road with a dead battery. It turned out to be the connector at the alternator (part of the wiring harness -- not the alternator). I wound up replacing both connector and alternator(again). I wasn't absolutely sure that the alternator itself wasn't involved and my local Autozone was unable to bench test the old unit. I certainly didn't want to put a bad alternator back, given the difficulty of the task.

I will be takin a look at most of this stuff tomorrow and I will have a volt meter on hand to do a quick test as soon as I see the light...

In the meantime, something I noticed as I was tinkering... my car idles at about 900RPMs, when I flipped the heat on (was already set at full blast), the RPMs jumped down to about 500, and then settled in at about 700.

Wondering if that's normal or if it could be related to my problem?

Thanks,

sounds normal to me.

the compressor/condensor/etc will add strain to the engine, and cause it to idle slightly lower.

Well, I got a volt meter you can plug into your car lighter so I can have constant readings.

So, car off I got between 12.5-12.8.

Car on, no charge light, 14.1-14.3

Car on, charge light on, same readings.

Once I unplugged/plugged the reader and got a 13.5 while the car was on (and the charge light was on) -- didn't seem right so I did it again and it went back up to 13.9-14.1.

I checked all my ground connections and they seemed fine (about how many grounds are there? I think I got to about 4?)

Also, this is new. See picture below. When I turned the car off the needle pretty much stayed there.



Should I be getting worried about the needle getting that close to meltdown?

After the car sat all night I got in and the needle was in the middle of C and H before I even started the car. I don't remember it being like that before??? Is that normal?

After I drove it a little it moved toward H a little bit but that's it.