So no sooner was the last problem fixed than the next one appears The car was in the garage to fix fried coilpack that was causing the engine to operate in limp home mode. That's all ok now but driving off from the garage, the battery light lingered on for a long time. When I got home, scanned for codes - nothing. But, after restarting the engine the same thing happens - battery light stays on. Left it idling to see if it goes out but then the temperature gauge kept climbing without the radiator fan kicking in this is definitely not what normally happens. I hadn't seen the temperature gauge needle move past 90 degrees before. When it got to 100ish I turned the engine off. I had measured battery voltage, it was 12.3V with engine off and 11.85V when idling which seems low to me. Anyway there were more pressing matters - putting the sprogs to bed, dinner, Love Island But after the chores were done, I went for a 20 minute drive. Headlights on, aircon set to "Lo". Probably less than a mile down the road the battery light went out. After a while I parked up and let it idle with headlights and aircon and thankfully the radiator fan did come on without the temperature gauge wandering off past 90 degrees. So it looks like it's not a faulty fan draining the battery whilst refusing to come on. I measured the battery voltage with engine off again and it was now 12.8V according to my uncalibrated old Hilka multimeter, so the alternator is still doing something.
This is not the first time the battery light has been strange. I has lingered on previously once or twice in the last couple of weeks but for a much shorter time, just long enough to be noticible. A couple of times it has stayed on dimly, looked like it was flickering on/off.
So I have questions running theough my mind now. Is the radiator fan not kicking in as it would normally, some kind of ECU response to the battery voltage being low (i.e to keep electrical load to minimum)? Do the symptoms point to battery or alternator problem (slipping belt maybe?)? I think both battery and alternator are original 16 year old parts.
This is not the first time the battery light has been strange. I has lingered on previously once or twice in the last couple of weeks but for a much shorter time, just long enough to be noticible. A couple of times it has stayed on dimly, looked like it was flickering on/off.
So I have questions running theough my mind now. Is the radiator fan not kicking in as it would normally, some kind of ECU response to the battery voltage being low (i.e to keep electrical load to minimum)? Do the symptoms point to battery or alternator problem (slipping belt maybe?)? I think both battery and alternator are original 16 year old parts.