Battery or Alternator?

[Andy]

Situation, slow turning over first thing from cold (as in this week almost not starting), lights increase in brightness when the engine is revv'd, heater increases fan speed when revv'd. If the car is not driven for a day or two it is a pita to start, but if ive been out the night before, it'll be fine, even with the cold starts.

I'm thinking battery, but then also maybe the alternator. Battery was changed about 3 ~ 4 years ago, alternator I think is stock.

If it is what I think any suggestions on a decent battery make. Have had a Varta on the before, now has a duracell I believe.

Tia!

[Jamieg285]

Given the increase in brightnesss and heater speed with revs, I'd be confident in saying it's the battery.

No ideas on recommendations from me though. Last time I actually bought a battery was about 12 years ago!

[Titsy]

Quoting: Jamieg285

Given the increase in brightnesss and heater speed with revs, I'd be confident in saying it's the battery.

[Rocky]

Dont you have a volt meter in the car, When idling it should show around 13.5-14V if the alternator is working, if its around 12V its not working.
The cold weather can however finish off an old battery quite easily.

[Roadkill]

Battery.

Don't go for an expensive one, though - it'll cost you twice as much but will NOT last twice as long.

[Andy]

Cheers guys!

Rocky, it's my Mondeo, the best you get is an idiot light when the alternator packs up for good.

I did gander through halfrauds when picking up some screen wash (pipes split when frozen...) and their average price was about £100~, I swear the last one was about £65 at most.

Anyway, will get on to that pronto! Cheers dudes!

[art b]

battery 4 sure,
i use bedford battery in npton,gr8 prices,
they have branches else where,

[Roadkill]

Just brought a battery for the Coupe DeVille - £50 - you shouldn't be paying more than that.

[Incursus]

Its the Alternator...

[Cunning Plan]

Another vote for battery..

Only good thing about buying from Halfrods is IF it IS the alternator, you won't have much trouble taking the battery back for a refund..

[Roadkill]

Not helpful for Andy I know but I use Cars Spares in Stony Stratford - they offer a 3 year warranty.

I'd expect others to offer similar.

[Incursus]

Quoting: Roadkill

I use Cars Spares in Stony Stratford

Not closed yet then?   Heard he was selling up...

[Andy]

Again, thanks guys!

I'll be hunting for one over the weekend i think. Monday looks bleak and I don't want to end up with a duff battery in a snow drift.

[philoldsmobile]

one more vote for battery..

even if the mondy did have a volt meter, i'd still double check with a multi meter, in dash volt meters can be shockingly inaccurate. according to the in dash one, both my old mans tahoe and my old caamro charged at 12.5 - 13v, but the mustang was throwing about 15.5 in at idle.

when tested with a multi meter, all were charging about 13.5 - 14 at idle rising to about 14.5 at revs - i.e exactly what they should be

TBH i really dont see the point in a volt meter in a passenger car, its just something else to distract joe plebhead, and give them an excuse for crashing into you. its the sort of system on a car that tends to work or not, so a light is perfectly adequate.

[Roadkill]

Quoting: Incursus

Not closed yet then? Heard he was selling up...

Not yet, no.

Was funny as last time I was in there I commented on how tidy it looked - he'd painted the front of the till area - first time in over 30 years !!!

[Andy]

Getting worse and have taken to the habit of parking under a tree/shrub/bush (sounds crazy but stop my screen from being frozen and I think gives a bit of protection from clear skies!)

Anyway, halfrauds want £95- odd and £104 for a bosch one, Eurocar parts ones start at £65- odd and they're closer.

Looks like the wallet is a taking a hammering again!

[art b]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Varta-Ford-Mondeo-Mk3-2-0-Petrol-Uprated-Car-Battery-/370365691717?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item563b83f745#ht_1446wt_1141\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Varta-Ford-Mondeo-Mk3-2-0-Petrol-Uprated-Car-Battery-/370365691717?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item563b83f745#ht_1446wt_1141

get one of these delivered....

[art b]

cheapie, 3 yr guarentee

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Numax-075-12V-Ford-Escort-Focus-Fiesta-Mondeo-Battery-/360282775538?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item53e286dff2#ht_3807wt_1141\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Numax-075-12V-Ford-Escort-Focus-Fiesta-Mondeo-Battery-/360282775538?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item53e286dff2#ht_3807wt_1141

[philoldsmobile]

I bought a used bosh silver battery from Autolusso over a year ago for £15 - still going strong.

[Andy]

Bought a new battery last night at Eurocar Parts. Initially tried flogging me a Bocsh one for £85+vat but wasn't having it so offered me a 'non-branded branded one' for £60.

Just fitted it at lunch and its much better now, super quick on turn over. It seems much lager than the one its replacing too, which is making me wonder if it was too small to begin with?

Could do with a new battery jacket as mine is a little knackered but meh it works! Smoothered the terminals with vaselalein too as they were completely dry even on the old one.

Cheers all! Happy motoring!

[Andy]

Well this has reared it's ugly head again!

Bought a replacement battery, fitted, quick starting, even on cold mornings, great!

however...

Yesterday leaving the pub, had a little bit of wheel spin (accidentally btw ) and the battery light came on. Only for about two seconds and it went away as soon as i dropped the revs. Didn't come on for the rest of the way home so thought no more of it.

Well same pub, except this time it was on for about a minute tonight, didn't leave until it had gone out, I whacked the bonnet open to check that the belt was still attached, which is was. Problem is now, any time I rev above 3k the light comes on and slowly fades when the revs decrease. I like to think I've some how got a free shift light, but in top gear is comes on when I'm only doing 50mph, and I don't know if it means it's not charging the battery.

So ideas guys, belt slipping? Alternator fecked? Any way of telling either?

Cheers and thanks in advance!

[ianjpage]

Stick a multimeter on the battery, rev it and see what charge is going into the battery - should tell ya if its charging right, do the same @ low revs and compare....should be much the same - also you should be able to hear / see the belt slipping....

[Incursus]

Quoting: Incursus

Its the Alternator...

[philoldsmobile]

what is the body to engine earth strap like? i had similar symptoms last year when my earth point was in a bad state. a clean up and re location (the mounting bolt sheared off) and all was well again.

the wheel spin probably disturbed it.

i also had bizarre readings from the temperature gauge.

[Andy]

Well this sucks.

Thought I'd get on to this early this morning, make the most of the day etc.

First off was the wheel, wheel well covers etc to get at the belts. First thing I noticed was the belt is shot, tiny breaks all the way across the valleys so I'm assuming it the original belt. Not a problem initially as I did pick one up a while ago when i was looking at doing the power steering  belt (found out it just needed re-tensioning so didn't replace them).

According to my book, just hook the pretensioner pulley with an alley key in the opposite direction to the tensioning and it should come off easily, but before I could do that, the belt that drives the air-con is in front of it on the main pulley off the crank. This is where is gets really frustrating, because to get to the air con tensioning pulley you have to remove the fuel pump and power steering pump. The AC pulley and tensioning pulley look like they weren't really designed to fit on there and any chance of servicing them require either the whole engine apart, or dropping the subframe with the engine on.

I was at one point considering cutting the AC belt and just putting another one on after I'd changed the alternator, but there was no way of telling if i could at all move that tensioner.

I'm not pretty peev'd as the light come on under heavy reving. I think it's going to be a garage job as I can't see how I'm ment to get it changed.

Sadly though I'm also thinking this might be the end of the road for the car. With this, and the various other things that have to be done for the next MOT I'm thinking it's now costing more in parts than I can warrant/afford and would rather get another car with more life in it. Though as my dad likes to remind me, 'you could end up buying another hunk of sh*t, at least you know whats wrong with yours!' - which is a valid point.

Oh well, Merry Xmas!