Weird fault

godinman

godinman

godinman

Soldato
Joined
26 Feb 2007
Posts
8,573
Hi all,

I had a bit of a strange fault occur on the way home yesterday, I got in the car, drove off, the Air-con and CD changer were working fine, I pull in to a shop on the way home, get back into the car and the aircon has stopped working (the fan still worked, but the air wasn't as cold as usual and was a bit damp), the CD changer stopped working and the backlight for the cd part of the dash was slightly dimmer than usual.

After a few minutes it all came back to life, and has been fine since. Anyone got any idea what this could be? There must be a common fuse or something linking them together, I have no idea tho!
 
I'll check that today, I guess it'll be normal until it goes wrong again. So with engine off it should be about 12v? And with it on about 14v or something?
 
godinman said:
I'll check that today, I guess it'll be normal until it goes wrong again. So with engine off it should be about 12v? And with it on about 14v or something?
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Yep pretty much.

Too low (anything below 10v while engine is off) usually means the battery is on it's way out or something electrical is using power such as a rear windows heater.

If it's too high then check your alternator, it it goes above with the engine running 16v then stop the engine asap.

Also it may be worth buying cheapy £3 multimeter and keep it in the glovebox/boot, so if this happens again you can quickly pop the bonnet and measure the voltage.
 
MikeHunt79 said:
Yep pretty much.

Too low (anything below 10v while engine is off) usually means the battery is on it's way out or something electrical is using power such as a rear windows heater.

If it's too high then check your alternator, it it goes above with the engine running 16v then stop the engine asap.

Also it may be worth buying cheapy £3 multimeter and keep it in the glovebox/boot, so if this happens again you can quickly pop the bonnet and measure the voltage.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that, I've got one I can keep in the car, will check it out. Hopefully it's something simple, I think the battery is quite new.
 
Any lights or funny noises? Potentially also your alternator or even just the aux belt slipping if the battery is fine - you'll be able to tell by your volt meter checks. If the battery is healthy engine off and there is little charge engine on you may need to check the belt / alternator. Would usually chuck a christmas tree of lights mind you
 
No lights, no noises that I've noticed and it hasn't done it since.

It was a fairly hot day, I may have driven reasonably quickly to this shop as I had a job to do there, maybe something just got a bit warm? Saying that, I didn't rag it, just went a bit swiftly..

Is there a way of checking the belt? How tight should it be? I seem to remember something about twisting them and making sure they don't go beyond 90 degree or something, is that right?
 
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