battery warning light

bmwmike

Member
 MN
This morning I started the car and the red battery warning light was on. It stayed on for my 30 minute drive.
I read some past threads about the car sitting and wearing a battery out, but my car really hasn't sat at all, in fact i just drove it last night about 45 minutes. It started easily and didn't act weird. The belt looks fine and no weird noises. The car has about 60k, could it just be the battery?
 
yeah thats what im hoping its not, im sure an alternator is $$$. Seems kinda low mileage for an alternator too?
 
Probably an alternator fault. Have you checked the output from the unit? If you have a Volt meter and set it to DC, hold the probes across the battery terminals and see what reading you are getting (engine running).If it's working ok it should read about 14Volts. It may be charging poorly or not at all so once the battery goes flat your car won't run.
 
so i drove the car again and the light was off. I took it home, removed the battery terminals and cleaned them with a wire brush. Added a little dielectric grease and made sure everything went back together very tight. I checked the volts and had 14.3 with it running, 12 when off. I think it was just a little fault, hopefully wont return.
 
bmwmike said:
so i drove the car again and the light was off. I took it home, removed the battery terminals and cleaned them with a wire brush. Added a little dielectric grease and made sure everything went back together very tight. I checked the volts and had 14.3 with it running, 12 when off. I think it was just a little fault, hopefully wont return.

:thumbsup:
 
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