Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Battery light in the dash is on WTF is it telling?

The light just came on tonight on my way home. under 2k rpm's its off but over it flashes and goes crazy. I just have this weird feeling that the alternator is on its way out knowning my luck today. What should i start looking at so i can get this problem fixed. Right now this is the only reliable car i have to drive out of 3. My VW needs new shoes and the roads are slick around here so its parked and my POS old chevy truck is having its problems. Figures only car i've got running good and its gonna go south as well.

U might wanna check the tension and condition of your belt

First thing you should do is put a volt meter on your battery with the car running and see what voltage your getting...should be about 14.5 volts, then turn on your defroster and wipers...should still be close to 14.0 volts.
If its not...your alternator is gone, also check your battery voltage with the car off...should be 12.8...or so.

Make sure it is the battery light. The low coolant icon is often mistaken for a battery icon.

run your car at the same time disconnect the negative battery cble while the cars running if the car dies out it's your altenator.(wear eye protection while doing this just incase some stuff gets blown in your eyes from the motor)

Its the red light with the battery in it. I'm not a complete moron i know the coolant light i see it every time i start the car along with the battery light. I checked the voltages today at lunch since i could see. It has 12.4 at the battery. Start it up it drops to 11.9 turn all the lights heater and whatnot on and it drops to 11.3... I revved it up a little and there was no change it actually dropped a little more so i'm pretty sure the alternator is toast. I can see i'm going to have fun with this POS Zetec trying to get it out of there.

Just curious how much does a rebuilt alternator cost. I called around got a couple quotes and they are running 140-150. I can use our work account and get a 30% discount at Carquest and Napa so after that i'm looking at around 100 bucks or so.

Just to let everyone know that it was the alternator. Swapped in a rebuilt one today and its charging. The old one must have been on its way out when we bought the car early last spring cause now the lights on it are a lot brighter. Anyways its good to have one running car again lol Just curious if there's a good place to get those 175 amp fuses online. My dad was checking voltages and shorted something out and blew that fuse. I couldn't find one here local they all had to order them. So as a temp fix since i need a car we just put both cables on one terminal. Don't really see why the fuse is there but i'm sure there is a reason.