Thread: help battery light d3

Hi Mick,

There are many wiser than me on this forum but sounds like either a battery on the way out or an alternator issue?

You won't be going far if either of these are the cause. If you have a battery charger you could give it a long charge and see if that temporarily fixes the issue which would indicate you may need a new battery.

Matt

Looks very much like your alternator has failed and then your battery drained. Very common issues on these cars, happened to mine around 160K.

Don't worry too much about all the faults - that's completely normal once the system voltage goes below about 9-10v and all the computers stop working. Everything should go back to normal once the battery is charged or a new one hooked up.

Get your battery on a charger and if it's not too old it will be able to charge back up ok. Then start your D3 and read the voltage with a multimeter - positive lead to the battery positive, negative lead to earth. Should be 14-15v. If it's approx 12 or less, your alternator is dead and needs replacement.

OEM alternator from Rovacraft set me back about $550.
I needed a new battery too as the negative terminal broke off mine as my mate was swapping it over with his spare. $200 for a Century DIN85L.

Let us know how you go.

Disconnect the battery before putitng it on a charger in case the alternator has shorted, although from the events the alternator has just failed to charge rather than short-circuited. Allow for the possibility of a dead short from the alternator when reconnecting the battery too - sparks may fly!