light all on but no one home!!!

**gazjacko** · Saturday 22nd April 2006, 22:12

Driving back home today and all warning lights started to come on/off. got it home then nothing when tried to re-start like a dead battery.
I reckon f**ked alternator, anyone got any other ideas or experience (nothing expensive please)?

**Tomcat** · Saturday 22nd April 2006, 22:35

Check the earth strap first, make sure its not broken.

**racer** · Sunday 23rd April 2006, 06:30

Yup, Brother Tomcat speakum wise words.

Had exactly the same symptoms on a company car (Vauxhall) years ago. Turned out to be the earth strap for the alternator.

**gazjacko** · Sunday 23rd April 2006, 19:54

Cheers will do, but went out today and jump started it and it was running ok (fingers crossed).

**poochingaround** · Sunday 23rd April 2006, 20:23

Remove battery and recharge on a slow charge refit to car and restart .Using a test meter across pos and neg terminals should read approx 14.5-14.7v if not it is highly likely that you have suffered an alternator failure.Obviously check the elementary items such as terminations, belt tension e.t.c.You must use a fully charged battery for this test to ensure correct field coil excitation on your alternator.Hope this helps. A quicker method is to contact AA ,RAC etc.