Mark Jones
Jedi Warrior
Offline
This past weekend my wife and I were autocrossing/slaloming our Spitfire. Getting ready for my first run I went to start the car and all I got was some clicking of the starter solenoid (you should have heard the Lucas jokes). Thinking that it might be the solenoid I put a screwdriver across the terminals but got nothing. I was able to get the car running by boosting it and made my run. To me this seems to mean that I have a bad alternator but the red ignition light on the dash never came on.
After the run I parked the car and left it running. Within a couple of minutes the car just died. I tried to start the car but this time there wasn’t even the click of the starter solenoid. So I took of to Canadian Tire and bought a new battery so that we could complete our day of autocross. The battery in the car was a 60 mth battery and the battery was 6 years old.
Yesterday evening we went about testing the alternator to see if that was the culprit. First we check the ign light by turning on the ignition and grounding the brown/yellow wire at the alternator and the red ign light came on. Good, the light is working.
Next I disconnect a cable from the battery and checked the amperage draw with nothing on, but found there only to be a current draw of 40 mA – probably just the radio and not a bad diode pack right? Then I checked the voltage at the battery and it was reading 12.7 V. My wife started the car and revved the engine and the volt meter read 14.6 V at the batter. Next we turned off the car and turned on the headlights for 10 minutes to drain the battery a bit and then started the car again and revved the engine, and once again saw a reading at the battery of 14.6 V So it certainly seems that the alternator is working.
Could it be that the old battery had lived the good life? But why would the car just die when it was sitting idling, something that it would not normally do? Prior to this the car had always started easily – the battery never seemed to be labouring during starting.
Thanks for your help.
After the run I parked the car and left it running. Within a couple of minutes the car just died. I tried to start the car but this time there wasn’t even the click of the starter solenoid. So I took of to Canadian Tire and bought a new battery so that we could complete our day of autocross. The battery in the car was a 60 mth battery and the battery was 6 years old.
Yesterday evening we went about testing the alternator to see if that was the culprit. First we check the ign light by turning on the ignition and grounding the brown/yellow wire at the alternator and the red ign light came on. Good, the light is working.
Next I disconnect a cable from the battery and checked the amperage draw with nothing on, but found there only to be a current draw of 40 mA – probably just the radio and not a bad diode pack right? Then I checked the voltage at the battery and it was reading 12.7 V. My wife started the car and revved the engine and the volt meter read 14.6 V at the batter. Next we turned off the car and turned on the headlights for 10 minutes to drain the battery a bit and then started the car again and revved the engine, and once again saw a reading at the battery of 14.6 V So it certainly seems that the alternator is working.
Could it be that the old battery had lived the good life? But why would the car just die when it was sitting idling, something that it would not normally do? Prior to this the car had always started easily – the battery never seemed to be labouring during starting.
Thanks for your help.