RobC Posted August 21, 2006 Posted August 21, 2006 ok so... the ignition light still will not go out... or at least not the 12v bulb warning light thing I got from halfords... However i have 2 other bulbs... one headlight bulb and an indicator bulb... they do go out... hows that? Total confused and don't under stand why this is the case... I have wired these both ways from the loom and direct to source and alt... both results are the same...? Need some help with this now as I am banging my head... taken meter reading from the back of the bulb and its 11.25v on the other two they are more like 7.5v Little more info... the (w) of them are 21v @51w and 12v @21w... no idea what the 12v warning light is...? been to halfords and they looked on the packet the same as me... result. Last thing to sort really before SVA and I am stumped? Cheers for any help... (I did a search to the begining of time and I got nothing... but I am sure there must be something on here about it... surely...but just couldn;t find it.) Quote
peterg Posted August 21, 2006 Posted August 21, 2006 usual reason the light doesn't go out is that the alternator isn't charging, have you checked the output of the alternator? Quote
Hammy Posted August 21, 2006 Posted August 21, 2006 The warning light should only be a low wattage bulb - I would have thought 2w max, the reading you are getting with larger bulbs is misleading you. A quick check to see ifi ts charging is to leave the headlightson for 10mins, start the car and see if they get brighter when you rev it up. if not then you are not charging and the indicator bulb is correct. When running battery voltage should be around the 13.2volt mark indicating a healthy alternator. Thoroughly check the wiring to the alternator, especially the connector onto the alternator. I take it the engine is earthed to the chassis ok as the car starts the internet might be your friend Quote
RobC Posted August 21, 2006 Author Posted August 21, 2006 cheers guys... will try this tomorrow now and report back... Quote
Kevin Wood Posted August 21, 2006 Posted August 21, 2006 The other thing to bear in mind is that the buld has to be a HIGH enough wattage to provide some current to the alternator to excite the field windings. This is what "kick starts" the generation of electricity and if the bulb is too small or an LED, for example, it won't be delivering enough current to excite the alternator. I's have though a tail lamp bulb would be somewherenear the right wattage. Try one of those and if the light goes out and the alternator maintains at least 14 v across the battery with a bit of load on it, all is well. You could put such a bulb in parallel with the Halfords one (hidden behind the dash) to increase the current to the alternator. Kevin Quote
Blatman Posted August 21, 2006 Posted August 21, 2006 Cheers for any help... (I did a search to the begining of time and I got nothing... but I am sure there must be something on here about it... surely...but just couldn;t find it.) I don't believe you tried searching at all Quote
RobC Posted August 22, 2006 Author Posted August 22, 2006 not the same question tho blatters... alternators working fine and charging with the high rated bulbs.. thanks for finding my last post though Quote
Blatman Posted August 22, 2006 Posted August 22, 2006 If everything is working fine when tested with an external bulb but the only thing that isn't is the "internal" bulb, then it must be the bulb and/or it's wiring that's at fault, surely? Quote
Hammy Posted August 22, 2006 Posted August 22, 2006 yep that wasn't/isn't clear from the first post - only that the light went out with a bigger bulb (not that it then started charging). - I took it that the higher wattage bulb didn't light (whch you might expect from a headlamp bulb). - Dash idiot lamps only a couple of watts tho, surely ? Quote
RobC Posted August 22, 2006 Author Posted August 22, 2006 ? gonna try what's been said tonight and then see what happens... wiring either via loom or from make shift wiring to battery and alternator direct has produced the same results with the same bulbs... either on or off depending whihc bulb I am using... will post result over the next couple of days depending on how I get on... fingers crossed doubling up might solve the problem... which would be nice Quote
RobC Posted August 22, 2006 Author Posted August 22, 2006 As for the charging, I need to double double check but it def. looks as though this is the case... need to check the light test to make dbley sure Quote
Ketan Posted August 22, 2006 Posted August 22, 2006 I had the same problem with my brothers westfield.... and we traced it back with the help of my next door neighbour ( who is a sparky) and we found out the alternator wasnt earthed, therefore it werent charging. We sorted all that out hey presto...the ignition lights goes off after a few secs. So it might be worth checking that Quote
RobC Posted August 24, 2006 Author Posted August 24, 2006 when running the alt is producing 0.5v as is the rest of the engine block... when its switched off its showing as 0v and earthed... However just spoken to my local SVA centre who has said that the ignition warning light is not an SVA failure so I am not going to worry too much about it at the moment and spend more time sorting the docs out and the final trimming to get the car through... Was going to put the warning light on a switch to just bypass for now... Quote
pistonbroke Posted August 24, 2006 Posted August 24, 2006 Warning light should be around 2 watts . As said , using a bigger wattage bulb will not provide enough current to excite the alternator into producing a charge . Using a sidelight or other type of bulb will give misleading results . Treat it as if there is no charge from the alternator when faultfinding Quote
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