battery light

[rhgrieve]

when i go to high reves with fast gear changing in the car the wee red battery light starts to flicker.

why is that?

[woodsy]

is this something do with the alternator belt slipping??????

sure someone will say

[DevilDamo]

I had a similar problem mate.

First checks are to look at the belt and see if it's slit or slipping. If that looks ok, run a voltmeter across the battery terminals to see if the alternator is charging the battery. Then have a look at the alternator connections. You could unplug them and then plug them back in.

If you have done all these and everything appears to be fine, then there could be a problem with the actual alternator itself. Sometimes the bushes inside the actual unit wear away. If this is the case, I'd suggest you purchase a new alternator. The ones for the Mk2's are a little more expensive than the ones for the Mk1's.

[Mattvtr]

If you wanna know if your alternator is knackered get a mate to help you and put a volt meter on the battery while the engine is on and rev it, if the voltage goes above 13 then youll know its buggered,seen some go up to 20!Normally you can also tell its buggered by if you have an amp or sub and when the engine is revved the amp cuts out to stop it from shorting from the high voltage

[DevilDamo]

(Taken from a respectable source)

The voltage across the battery terminals should be between 12.0V and 13.8V.

If the voltage is below 12.0 volts, the alternator is not charging the battery sufficiently. If the voltage is above 13.8 volts, the alterntor is over charging the battery, which could be potentially dangerous!