low battery warning light

[kungfubjj]

hi guys , after recent fuel leak problems in my last thread I finally get car sorted, drove 45 mile to work absolutely fine , on the drive home suddenly stop light comes on and low battery warning, it went away after about 3 min then returned 10 min later same again disappeared after a few min, then happened as I was near home. pulled up turned engine off and tried to restart...started fine tried this a few times no problem. the battery had been flattened right down a few times lately as I'd broke down a few times with a recent fuel leak.any easy way to check if it's battery or alternator??

Clio dci 1.5 dci
cheers!!

 

[rsRob]

First double check all the battery/alternator connections.

If good, measure voltage across the battery and the alternator with a digi meter - you want higher than ~12.5v at both. Less at the battery means you have dodgy wiring and/or connections somewhere in the starter/charging circuit/earth points. You can find the culprit by looping out parts of the circuit using a jump lead.

If both read near equal (within 0.2v) but lower than 12.5v, turn on the ignition to the first click - if the check battery light doesn't come on there's a problem with the alt. exciter wire. This means the alternator won't start charging.

Only after checking all this, you can work out if you need a new battery and/or alternator.

Hope this helps, good luck... I learned this the expensive way

 

[kungfubjj]

Cheers will have to get hold of a meter, this happened the day after an MOT and some work was done, front coil springs and stabiliser links fitted, any chance they could of knocked something?? dont even know where the altenator is tbh anyone got a good pic?

cheers

 

[kungfubjj]

ok I see it, well the belt is still on and its going round when I start the car. it seems to start ok but then if I put any electrics in wipers headlights radio etc it says low battery...so would this be alternator rather than battery problem? seems like it's been running purely on the battery since I got it back from Mot

 

[rsRob]

Might not be the alternator, there's not much to go wrong really unless you've done galactic mileage - much more likely to be wiring related.

Get yourself a cheap digi meter no more than £15 from fleabay. They're decent investment and without it you'll be guessing what's wrong